In The Balance
by LucidDreamer56
Summary: Rey, working with the Rebels, seeks a way to break her Force Bond with Kylo Ren. But when she consults Leia, the General has other ideas...
1. Chapter 1

**_Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Star Wars universe, nor do I seek to profit from it. All rights to the source material belong to its various, legal, creators!_**

 _Author's Note: For the perfect soundtrack, listen to the Evanescence album, Synthesis while reading!_

 **Chapter ONE**

In the silence she takes one breath.

He takes the next.

They are bound together, pulse matching pulse, heartbeat mirroring heartbeat.

This is not love.

This is life.

Rey blinked as Poe touched her arm.

"Did you just drift into hyperspace?" His tone was biting but his eyes sparkled with good humor. "You might want to pay a little more attention. General Organa is laying out the plans for our next foray and I doubt she likes to repeat herself."

"Sorry, I just…" Rey straightened in her hard-backed chair and wiped her hand over her eyes. She couldn't tell Poe the real reason for her distraction. She couldn't confess that truth to anyone. "Guess I didn't get enough sleep last night, that's all."

"That seems to be a habit with you these days." Concern replaced the amusement in Poe's eyes. "Perhaps a visit with a healer droid is in order."

Rey waved him off. "No, no. I'm fine. It's just"—she considered the best lie for this situation—"I feel responsible, you know. I could've killed him, or at least allowed Snoke's guards to do so. If I had, maybe I could've stopped all this."

The flyer shook his head. "It wouldn't have mattered, Rey. Killing Kylo Ren would only have cut off one head of the beast. The First Order would still hunt us. They have others who would jump in and lead them readily enough."

"True." Rey glanced over at Leia Organa, who was seated at the other end of the table. "And it would have hurt her terribly, I think. That was the main thing that stayed my hand." Rey lowered her head so her eyes would not betray this new lie.

Poe laid his hand on Rey's arm. "That was a kindness, however it all plays out."

His fingers were strong, but warm. Comforting. Rey looked up into Poe's handsome face and wondered, once again, why she couldn't respond to his obvious interest in her.

 _You know why._

 _"_ Yes, she had suffered so much already. With the loss of her husband, and then her brother, I couldn't"—Rey swallowed—"I could not kill her son."

"Although Skywalker was not dead at the time," Poe observed, his eyes narrowing.

Crap, her lies were becoming as tangled as the cables in the Millennium Falcon.

 _And just as frayed. Stop speaking now, before he guesses that you are wearing a mask of deception._

Rey lifted her chin and forced a wan smile. "Of course. These past few months have been so chaotic, I tend to forget all the little details."

"Only natural." Poe patted her arm before rising to his feet. "Looks like the meeting is over," he said with a jerk of his head toward Leia, who was also standing. "Don't worry, I can fill you in on anything you missed later." He arched his dark brows over his eyes. "Maybe over a drink?"

Rey tucked a straggling lock of her brown hair behind her ear. "We'll see. I do need to spend some time on my training. Even without a master to instruct me, I must work on what I've already learned." _And read the Jedi texts_ , she thought, but of course did not voice that thought aloud.

Poe shrugged. "Of course. As you do every evening." He lifted his arms over his head, as if simply stretching, although Rey wryly observed how the movement showed off his well-muscled body to its best advantage. "The thing I don't quite understand is why you don't ask General Organa to work with you. I know she did not train as a Jedi, but she is powerful in the Force. I'd think it would be helpful for you to at least talk with her, but you seem to go out of your way to avoid being alone with her."

Rey turned away, fiddling with the hilt of her blaster so that Poe could not read her expression. "She is extremely busy, and has so many concerns. I don't want to be another one."

"I'm sure she wouldn't consider you a concern." Poe took hold of Rey's shoulders and turned her to face him. "Although sometimes I do. There's something going on with you—don't try to deny it. I know pain when I see it, and you seem more tormented than our General. I understand the reasons for her suffering, but you…" His dark eyes raked over her face. "Did something happen to you, when you confronted Snoke and Ren? Something more than what you've told us?"

Rey bit back a bark of hysterical laughter. Had something happened? Yes, yes it had. But not what Poe suspected. He was undoubtedly thinking of torture, or some other type of abuse. Of course, she had suffered at Snoke's hands, but that was not what kept her awake at night, or darkened her waking thoughts.

 _Heartbeat mirroring heartbeat. Breath matching breath. Fingers touching, only for a moment, but a moment that encompassed eternity…_

Rey stepped back, pulling free of Poe's hands. "Perhaps I will speak with her. Sometime soon. But for now, I must return to my quarters and resume my training."

"Later, then?" Poe cocked his head to the side and gave her a roguish grin. "All training and no fun makes Rey a very somber girl." He held up his hand. "One drink surely can't harm such a powerful Jedi."

"I'm not a Jedi yet," Rey said, in a sharper voice than she'd intended. She took a deep breath before continuing, using a bantering tone to match his. "Anyway, like I said, we shall see. You wouldn't want me to be too predictable, now would you?"

Poe grinned. "No, I wouldn't. I want you to be just as you are." He winked and turned away, but Rey heard the word that escaped his lips as he walked away— _perfect_.

There was a problem, but not one she could solve in that moment. Rey straightened to her full height, thrust back her shoulders, and strode off in the opposite direction.

She shook off the lingering memory of Poe's smile. She knew she couldn't allow the dark-haired pilot's charm to cloud her thoughts. She needed to learn, to train. She didn't need another man invading her mind.

Not when there was already one who was always there, hiding in the shadows. As much a part of every moment as the air filling her lungs.

She takes one breath.

He takes the next.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Leia paced her cramped quarters, kicking aside a box filled with old communications that she'd printed out for some unknown reason.

She'd probably thought they'd be needed for future campaigns, but now, what was the point? Everything had changed. The rebel forces had been decimated when the First Order had attacked them as they sought to flee to a new base.

No, not the First Order. Kylo Ren had been the mastermind behind that attack, even if he had not personally fired on her command ship.

Kylo Ren, who was actually Ben Solo

Her son.

Leia stopped walking and lowered her head. Clearing her mind of every other thought, she sought the connection that had eluded her for so long. She unspooled a thread and sent it out across the vast distances separating her from Ben. But there was no tug on the thread. No connection. Not anymore.

The Force should have been the conduit, the artery linking her to her child. But there was nothing there, as there had been nothing since that one moment when she'd stood on the bridge and felt Ben's reluctance to fire upon her ship.

It was a little thing, only a moment. Not followed by any other concessions or change of course. But still, it gave her hope.

Her lips twisted into an ironic smile. No one else could ever understand why she clung to that tiny shard of light amid the darkness. Her son had murdered his own father. There was no coming back from such an act, not in most people's minds.

But most people did not understand the power of the Force, and its quixotic nature. How could she explain to anyone why something that seemed to exemplify the light could thrust so many into what appeared to be the abyss? Her own father, and now her son.

Leia crossed to the small window that displayed a canvas of the stars. After so many years of triumph and pain, of concessions and confessions, and passion and emptiness, she had learned a few lessons.

 _Only a few_ , she thought, with a faint smile. _But the important ones, in the end._

She gazed out at the dark expanse of the galaxy, punctuated with the white spark of stars.

Suns, actually, to those who lived beneath their light. Sources of light and life.

Yet capable of vaporizing everything that came too close.

Life, death—it was all a balancing act.

Just like the Force.

Leia sighed and turned away from the light and the darkness.

Somehow, she had to find a way to achieve balance between those mighty powers. Light and dark had to learn to live in harmony,. Just as the day gave way to the night without losing itself, and the night welcomed the dawn without relinquishing its own power, there had to be a way that the dark aspects of the Force could coexist with the light.

She'd always assumed that such a union would be accomplished by others. Her brother, or those he trained. Others with more power in the Force.

But now there was no one else. Only her. This was her final mission. The end point of her entire life.

Her destiny.

She straightened, ignoring the pain in her joints and the weariness of her soul. Crossing to her comm, she barked out an order:

"Send me the girl Rey."


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER THREE**

Rey sat cross-legged on the cold metal floor, her eyes closed against the faint blue light that suffused her cabin. It was never entirely dark in her quarters—a function of the military nature of the ship. Any alert required the crew to jump into action at a moment's notice. There could be no fumbling in the dark, searching for boots or blasters.

It made meditation more difficult, but Rey didn't really mind the lack of darkness. A month before, wrapped in the velvet blackness of her quarters on the rebel base, she'd been bedeviled with visions that had blessedly faded in the pearly light of this ship.

Rey pressed her palms against the smooth surface of the floor and focused on the words she'd memorized from one of the sacred Jedi texts she'd stolen from Luke Skywalker's island refuge. She wasn't sure why she'd taken them before she'd fled Ahch-To. It had been an impulse—backed up by words she'd heard in her head. Words uttered in a strange voice, with the oddest inflection. "Take the books you must," it had repeated, over and over, only dying away when she'd safely stowed the texts on the Falcon.

Another trick of the Force, she supposed. If only she could understand its workings better. Sometimes, when she sat like this, eyes closed, a flicker of comprehension licked at her brain like flames. But like a fire, it died as swiftly as it flared, leaving her with only ashes.

 _You need a teacher._

Yes, she did. But there was no one left. General Organa could possibly have helped her, but Rey had seen a look in Leia's eyes that had stopped her from approaching the rebel leader. A searching look that told Rey that the general felt at least a shadow of the connection she shared with Leia's son. Rey couldn't risk opening her mind to Leia Organa, not when that thread was still intact.

And Luke was gone. Although she believed that his spirit lived on in the Force, Rey feared reaching out to him would open a door she could never shut. A door that would allow another to walk in. One who might be able to teach her much, but who might also take everything she was.

No, she could not go to him, or beckon him to her. Not in the way needed for true communication. _Even if his words were always there, drumming against her skull, constant as her heartbeats._

Rey opened her eyes and gazed around the tiny space allotted to her on the ship. She knew she was fortunate, though. Most of the crew were berthed in bunks stacked like stones in a wall. She'd only been given a cabin because she needed the privacy for her training. General Organa's orders, which had earned Rey more than a few dirty looks from crew members who knew nothing of her connection to the Force.

Of course, Finn had set them straight. A rare grin lit up Rey's face. Told them what for, and why.

 _Finn_ …If only he were still on the ship. He was the one person Rey felt she could talk to without betraying her secret. And even if she had, he was the one person she trusted not to turn on her. _Or reject me,_ she thought, the grin fading.

But Finn, Rose, and Chewbacca had been sent out on the Millennium Falcon on a reconnaissance mission. General Organa still held hope that there were other rebel strongholds scattered throughout the galaxy, even if they had not immediately answered her call from Crait.

As the door to her cabin slid open, Rey leapt to her feet and curled her fingers around the butt of her blaster. She instinctively pointed it at the young woman standing in the doorway.

"Hey, just delivering a message," said the girl, lifting her hands.

Rey reminded herself, once again, that she didn't need to react to everything as if it were a possible danger. She was among friends now. But she'd lived alone so long, dependent only upon her own survival skills, it was difficult to shake her automatic reaction to any stimuli. "Sorry," she said, lowering her blaster. "Habit."

"Not a bad one," the other woman observed, with a smile. "Better to be prepared than to be overtaken."

Rey slipped the weapon back into its holster. "That's true, although perhaps blasting a hole in the ship wouldn't be such a great idea. Anyway, what can I do for you?"

"General Organa is asking for you. I've been sent to fetch you to her quarters."

"Oh?" Rey's fingers twitched at her side. "Any particular reason?"

"Not one she's told me, but then, I wouldn't expect her to." The other girl motioned toward the corridor. "I don't think I need to escort you, so if you'd just head on, I can get back to my proper job."

Rey looked over the blue-skinned woman with interest. She hadn't met this crew member yet, which was odd, given the compressed nature of their vessel. "Which is?"

"Weapons repair and construction. I actually just delivered something I was working on to the general. That's why she asked me to fetch you." The other rebel shrugged. "It's not like our leader keeps me at her beck and call. She's more interested in my skills being used to the best advantage of our cause. I'm Kalista, by the way. I don't believe we've ever been introduced."

Rey's held out her hand. "Rey."

Kalista raised her white eyebrows, her pale crystal eyes flashing with good humor. "I know who you are."

"Of course." Rey crossed her arms over her chest.

 _Everyone knows you, and no one does. Except me…_

Rey swore under her breath. _No, you may not speak to me. Not now. Not ever. And you do not know me._

The only answer was a withdrawing of the wave of warmth that has washed over her entire body.

"I doubt it's anything that should cause you to curse," Kalista said, eyeing Rey with suspicion. "The general seemed in good humor when I saw her, so I doubt she's planning to toss you out an airlock." She waved her long-fingered hand through the air. "Anyway, I must get back to my work. Blasters don't repair themselves, you know."

"Right," Rey said, offering the other rebel a tight smile. "You go take care of your business. I'll go see what General Organa wants of me."

 _No matter how little I want to_ , she thought, as Kalista loped off down the corridor.

It wasn't that she disliked Leia. Quite the opposite. But if Luke Skywalker's sister possessed even a tenth of his power in the Force, she'd surely uncover the depths of Rey's connection to Kylo Ren.

It posed a grave danger to them all—indeed, the entire Rebel Alliance. Rey understood that with every weary fiber of her being. Yet as long as she could manage to keep their connection thin as a thread—allowing it to pool in her mind instead of rushing over her like a river, Rey believed she could prevent Leia's son from discerning their exact location. She paused outside of the General's quarters and sucked in a deep, steadying breath.

She'd found her place now. Her family. She could not lose that again.

She would not.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

Leia didn't look away from her view of the stars as the door to her chamber slid open.

"Hello, Rey. Please come in."

"General, you asked for me?"

Leia turned then, her fingers tingling as she detected the tension in the girl's voice. "Yes, thanks for coming so quickly." She studied the young woman standing before her. Slender, and only slightly taller than Leia, she wore her smooth dark hair pulled tightly away from her pale face.

An attractive child, though no great beauty. And deceptively frail.

Leia knew that fragility was a mask. The child standing there, in her simple tunic and boots, was no damsel who'd ever need rescuing. The Force radiated through her, illuminating her great dark eyes. An energy that Leia could sense; that surrounded the younger woman like a golden aura. A power beyond anything Leia had ever felt.

No, that was not true. She _had_ felt such power before. In her father, and her brother.

And her son.

"I suppose you wonder why I've called you here at this hour," Leia said, motioning to a padded bench that separated her bed from the desk and storage cubes that formed her office. "Please, sit down. No need to stand on ceremony."

The girl hesitated, her gaze darting all around the room, before she took a seat on the bench. "I assumed you wanted to talk to me about something to do with our cause."

"Yes, that's true, but I also have something to give you." Leia sat beside Rey and slid an object from the pocket of her robe. "I believe this is yours," she said, holding out a refurbished lightsaber. "I had it repaired. Hopefully it will serve you well."

Rey's eyes widened. "Oh no, that can't be. It was Luke's once, so now it must be yours."

"It was my father's once as well, but that is neither here nor there. It found you. It leapt to your hand. It is yours."

Rey swallowed audibly. "Something like that, an heirloom—it should stay with you." She looked down at her hands, which were clenched in her lap. "I'm not part of your family. I can't take it from you."

"You are taking nothing from me. I cannot wield it now, nor do I wish to." Leia examined the girl, taking in the tightness of her compressed lips and the lines bracketing her mouth.

She was holding herself together, but only barely. As Leia watched, Rey lifted her hands to clutch her upper arms.

"Sorry. I seem to have caught a chill," the girl said.

 _But it is not so,_ Leia thought. Rather, a fire raged inside Rey's slender frame. Leia could sense the hot blood roaring through the girl's veins.

And something else.

 _And someone else._

"No," she said, dropping Anakin Skywalker's battered lightsaber into her lap. "I knew you were connected, somehow, but I never suspected…" Leia sat back, forcing calm into her trembling limbs. She couldn't betray the depth of her anxiety. Not when the child before her was ready to crumble to ash.

Leia knew she could not give into despair. Or even hope. She couldn't allow her emotions to cloud her judgement. She had to think this through. She had to consider, and, probably, make the hard choices. She had to be the strong one.

Just like always.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

Rey's short fingernails dug into the bare skin of her arms.

She could not fall apart. Not now. Not in front of this elegant woman who'd once been a princess and was now so much more.

A hero. A leader.

 _A wife, a mother_. Rey blinked away the memory of a young man in black running a lightsaber through the chest of an older man.

A man she'd learned to admire, and even love, in such a short period of time. The kind of man Rey would've been happy to call "Father."

But the one person who could have, the one who should have, had struck that deadly blow.

 _Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to. It's the only way to become who you were meant to be._

No, she would not listen to those words. They were not being spoken. Not in this room. Not in front of this woman. They were only an echo.

Rey realized that she had clapped her palms over her ears. She dropped her hands into her lap. "I'm sorry. Sometimes I see things, hear things. The Force…"

"Has connected you to my son." General Leia Organa swept up the lightsaber and rose to her feet, her back to Rey. "Yes, I know. I suspected it before, but now I know."

Rey jumped up to face Leia's unyielding back. "It was not something I asked for. Not something I desired."

"Asked for? No, I imagine not. But desired?" Leia turned around slowly, holding out the lightsaber. "Desire is a strange thing, child. Not always something that can be easily controlled. It is rather like the Force in that way." As she opened up her hand the lightsaber leapt from her fingers.

Rey reached up and grabbed the weapon with one hand.

"You see," Leia said. "It has chosen, not me."

Tapping the lightsaber against her other palm, Rey stared into the face of the woman who stood in front of her. Still strong and proud. Still offering her a gaze filled with understanding.

A woman who had suffered, Rey realized, in a flash of Force awareness, more than Rey could ever know. Yet she had never given into despair. She had not fallen into the darkness, despite the depths into which she had been plunged. She had always fought the pull of that whirlpool; had always swum upwards, toward the light.

Which meant it was also possible for Rey to avoid a dire fate. No matter what life threw at her. No matter what shadowy forests she had to pass through. No matter how much pain or loss she had to endure.

Rey squared her shoulders and met the unfaltering gaze of Leia Organa Solo. "We are tied by an intense force bond, Ben and I. It is not something I understand. Perhaps you can help me to deal with it, or, better yet, break it?"

"You can sense him, then?"

"Yes, but more than that…" Rey pressed the lightsaber to her breast. "We can see one another, if we try. As we are in the same space. Speak as easily and clearly as you and I. And"—Rey lifted her chin and tightened her grip on the lightsaber—"even touch."

Something flickered over Leia's still face. _A shadow_ , Rey thought, _like dark wings blotting out the light, but only for an instant._

"I see." Leia turned away and crossed to the window that opened onto the impassive stars. "Then there is only one thing for it, my dear. Only one thing you can do for the cause."

"Save him?" Rey cursed the break in her voice.

Leia wheeled around, sweeping her robes about her in an imperial gesture befitting a queen. "No."

Rey stared at the older woman, astonishment lifting her voice to a higher pitch. "You do not wish me to try to bring Ben back to the light?"

"I wish it," Leia said, "but I do not believe it is possible. Oh, I don't mean that I think Ben is lost forever to the dark side of the Force. But bringing him back—that is not something you can do, my child."

Rey took a step back and slumped back onto the bench. "You mean I am not yet strong enough in the Force to do so."

Leia shook her head. "No, that isn't what I mean. The truth is, no one can, no matter how strong their Force abilities. There is only one person who can save my son."

Looking up at her, Rey experienced a flash of enlightenment and realized what Leia was trying to say. "Himself."

"Yes. Just as my father did. Oh, you have heard the stories, I suppose, about how my brother saved Darth Vardar. How Luke brought him back to the light?" Leia sat beside Rey once again and took hold of one of her hands. "It isn't true, that story. Even Luke would've told you so." Leia's gentle smile illuminated her tired face. "My brother simply chose to be he who was. He stood his ground and refused to compromise his own values, despite the threat to his life. He was willing to die for what he believed in. That was his choice." Leia patted Rey's trembling fingers. "But it was my father's choice to save him, and in doing so, to redeem himself."

 _You are nothing. But not to me._

Rey gripped Leia's fingers. "So what is it that you want from me, then? To break the bond with Ben and allow him to go his own way? Let him choose his own path, dark or light?"

"No, not that either." Leia pulled her hands free and sat back, her expression filled with compassion. "I simply want you to be yourself, Rey. Become who you are meant to be."

The words struck like a knife. Rey brushed futilely at the tears slipping from her eyes. "And what is that?"

"I don't know. How could I? It is your life." Leia tipped her head to one side. "Just know this—you were not born to save my son. You are not simply a tool of the Force, meant to complete some inscrutable destiny. You are a whole person, and you deserve your own life, lived on your terms. You needn't be controlled by your Force sensitivity, you know. I was not. I turned my back on it—on the extremes of it, at least—because I knew I had other goals and a different purpose. Another destiny." She offered Rey a wry smile. "My life has been no easier or harder because of that choice, but I did make it. And you can too. There is always that power, one of the two things I believe are even stronger than the Force. The power of choice."

Staring into Leia's deep brown eyes, Rey caught a reflection of something familiar. Something that told her that the truth she'd glimpsed in another pair of dark eyes was real, and represented a true glimmer of hope. "You want me to allow the force bond to remain, then?"

"Yes, if you can bear it. Keep that thread intact. But do not attempt to change him." Leia sighed deeply. "I have tried to do that to others, in the past. It never ended well. And so, having learned the futility of such actions, I do not believe that is what is asked of you, Rey. Your mission, I think, is simply to be you, and be there. Be the one who does not abandon him. Do not condone his actions if they are evil, but never walk away."

The image of Han's lifeless body falling from that bridge, filled Rey's mind. "I'm not sure I _can_ bear it."

"You can." Leia touched Rey's damp cheek with her fingertips. "It will require great strength, and the other thing I believe is greater than even the Force."

"Compassion?" Rey asked, reaching up to cover Leia's hand with her own.

"Yes, but more than that." Leia lowered their clasped hands and pressed them to her right breast. "Love, daughter of my heart. True, unselfish, love."


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

The girl was no fool. Leia watched comprehension dawn in Rey's dark eyes. Of course, she knew. She knew what this choice would mean.

"If I open myself up to this bond fully, he will know where I am," Rey said, her voice wavering slightly.

"Yes, I imagine so."

"He could track us. All of us." Rey pulled her fingers free of Leia's grip and rose to her feet. "That cannot happen." She toyed with the lightsaber, spinning it between her fingers in what Leia felt was an unconscious gesture. "I think, I hope, if he were to find me, he might allow me to live. I'm not sure, but I believe he might. But if he were given the ability to track the entire Resistance…"

"It could have devastating consequences, yes." As Leia stood she casually pressed one hand against the tall back of the bench.

 _It doesn't matter that your knees are shaking. It never matters, if they don't see it._

As she lifted her head, the heavy mass of her hair felt like the crown she'd lost so long ago. No, not lost. Given up, given over. Tossed aside when her world was destroyed and such things no longer mattered. When she'd found other reasons to keep fighting.

 _Oh, Han, if only I'd learned a few lessons sooner…_ Leia straightened and faced off with Rey. At least she'd learned in time to help this girl. And her son. Perhaps.

"If I choose to do as you ask"—Rey's dark eyes flashed as she met Leia's steady gaze—"I must leave the Resistance. Abandon all my compatriots and friends. Go off somewhere and live in isolation, like Luke. At least until this thing, whatever it is, between me and Ben is resolved. That is the truth, isn't it?"

"Yes, but as I said, it is your choice."

Rey crossed over to the window. "Where will you send me?" she asked, tracing a symbol on the glass.

The symbol of the Resistance, Leia realized, following the movements of the girl's finger. "There are a few worlds, still far from the reach of the First Order, that might suffice. I will try to choose well. I don't want to make your life too difficult."

Rey's sharp burst of laughter held no humor. "I survived on Jakku. Even as a small child. Alone. I think I can manage." She turned to face Leia, her face pale and set as marble. "But we shouldn't discuss it. I should not know, not until I arrive. Not until everyone else leaves and disappears safely into hyperspace."

Wisdom as well as strength. Yes, this girl was worthy of her innate abilities. Leia smiled gently. "Of course. And you must not open up to your Force bond again, not fully, until you are alone."

"Right." Rey rubbed her fist over her eyes. "I should go now. I feel…" She shot a quick, tortured glance in Leia's direction. "I can sense him, stronger now. I think perhaps it is your presence. With the two of us, together, it is too much of a possibility that he can break down my barriers. Break through." She took a couple of stumbling steps toward the door. "I must go. I cannot allow this to happen. Not now."

As Leia grabbed Rey's arm to steady her, a bolt of energy vibrated through her hand.

Dark eyes, looking directly into hers. Anguished, tortured, eyes.

 _Mother…_

She wanted nothing more than to stay there, to communicate with him, to soothe his pain.

To save him.

But she knew the truth. She could not rescue her son. She would've happily given her life to do so, but it was impossible. She had learned, over the years, the truth she'd told Rey. There was only one way Ben Solo could come back into the light.

If he took the first step. Only then.

Those dark eyes, pleading. _Mother, tell me where you are. Let me come to you…_

She thought she'd faced difficult things before, and she had. But not like this. She had to draw power from the deepest well of her will to drop Rey's arm and move away.

 _I'm sorry. I love you. But, my son, I cannot do this._

Then it was Rey who had to run to her and keep her on her feet.


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

In the end, Leia found Rey an island planet, similar in some ways to Luke's refuge on Ahch-To. Although despite the mild climate and fresh water springs, there were no adorable Porgs or, indeed, any other lifeforms on her new home. Only vegetation, which provided enough to eat, but offered no opportunities for interaction, even on the most basic level.

But Rey thought that was probably just as well. She was used to being alone. This wouldn't be so different from the isolation she had experienced most of her life. Yes, there had been a wide variety of beings living on Jakku, but it wasn't like she'd had any family or friends there. Certainly no one who cared.

Yet there were those who cared now-those she had to leave behind.

Poe, who'd insisted on escorting Rey to the planet she'd refused to allow him to name, had looked around and declared this an unholy exile.

After his co-pilot had headed back toward their ship, Poe had pulled her into a close embrace. "There is no sense in you living here alone," he'd whispered in her ear. "Say the word and I will stay."

Rey pulled away and crossed her arms over her chest. "No. You're one of the best pilots in the Alliance. You're needed."

"And you aren't?" Poe's troubled expression darkened as his bright eyes raked over her.

"I am, but in a very different way." Rey stiffened her spine and met Poe's gaze squarely. "I'm on a special mission for General Organa, as you very well know."

"One that makes little sense to me. All right, if you are determined to live her like some hermit, at least allow me to leave one of the small fighters we have docked on board in case you need to make a quick getaway. We can hide it in that cave that's closer to the beach. Cover the entrance with some branches from those frond trees that are everywhere if you like. Should be sufficient camouflage."

"Only if you disable the homing beacon and other tracking devices so it cannot be traced. Don't argue with me," Rey added, cutting off his sputtered reply. "It could indeed be a good idea for me to be able to leave this planet without having to contact anyone in the Alliance, but I can't permit anyone to trace my location. You and your co-pilot are the only ones, except for Leia, who know where I am. That is how it must remain. As I told you, even I don't want to know. There is a reason"—she held up a hand as Poe again interjected a string of words indicating his disapproval of the situation —"but it is need to know, I'm afraid."

"And I apparently do not need to know." Poe sighed heavily. "Very well, I will leave the fighter, although you know it cannot carry you that far. Not without refueling. So if you do blast off this rock, you'd damn well better reinstate the communications interface and hale the closest Alliance ship immediately."

"Yes, of course." Rey studied the handsome flyer for a moment before she stepped forward and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Thank you. It is nice that the last face I will see for a while is that of a friend."

Poe threw his arms around her and kissed her, not so platonically, on the mouth. "You can remember that too," he said, as he released her and stepped back.

"I'm sure I will," Rey said, a smile tugging up the corners of her tingling lips. "Now, go hide my fighter, and leave. You don't want to give me any wrong ideas."

"What if I do?" Poe replied, with a wink. "All right, then, I will go. But I do know where you are, as you said. And trust me, orders or no orders, if the First Order decides to overtake this quadrant and I suspect that you could be in grave danger, I'll come back for you."

Rey shook her head. "You should not. General Organa would be very displeased."

He grinned. "She's been displeased with me before, and gotten over it."

"But I would not," Rey said, more gravely, before offering Poe a wan smile. "I appreciate the sentiment, but I must complete my mission. You of all people should understand what that means."

"Yeah, sadly I do." Poe walked away, but turned before he gotten too far. "Is there some message I should give Finn?" he called out.

Rey considered this for a moment. _Tell him how much I still care_ , she thought. _Tell him he is the brother I've always wanted and the best friend I've never known, until we met_ , but—"Just tell him that I have a new light saber." She patted the slender wand at her waist. "And I plan to teach him how to use it, one of these days. Tell him he'd better be prepared for some tough instruction."

Poe grinned again and gave her a jaunty salute before he disappeared behind a curve in the path.

Armed with determination, Rey hadn't shed a tear when the transport ship had blasted off, leaving her alone. She had a mission. She would fulfill it.

Unsure if anything would come of experimenting with the Force Bond, Rey had decided that she would spend her time pouring over the Jedi texts, which she had stuffed in the bottom of one of her duffle bags. She could continue her training, one way or the other. And since Leia had commissioned her to open her mind to Kylo Ren, and doing so would threaten no one but herself, Rey had also decided to reach out to Luke. She wasn't confident that her incipient Force abilities would be sufficient to cross the barrier of death, but she was determined to try.

 _There is no try. There is only do_ , said that strange voice inside her head. Rey shrugged this off as another curiosity of the Force, although she found the sentiment rather bracing.

Yes, do. Make it happen.

A few days after her arrival, she sat on one of the rocks that overlooked a turquoise ocean. Her new home was not as dramatic as the one that had housed Luke's retreat—instead of the chill stone of that rocky promontory, this island was like a emerald set in gold. Soft, grass-covered hills studded with rose-colored stones rolled up from sparkling beaches that encircled the entire island. There were a few caves under the higher hillocks, and it was in one of these that Rey set up her living quarters.

But for her meditation, she choose a stone seat overlooking the sea.

 _Now, come to me,_ she thought. _You've wished for this communion long enough. Come to me now_

For several days, the only answer she received was the rolling roar of the waves. But one evening, as the azure sky faded to a violet twilight, she felt something stir the grass behind her.

She did not turn around.

"I am in the middle of my meditation," she told the quite substantial force-vision of Kylo Ren. "You may sit with me if you wish."

Out of the corner of her eye she caught the sweep of a cape and the flash of polished boots as the dark-clad form of Leia and Han's son settled beside her.


	8. Chapter 8

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

Rey knew that if she reached out, she could actually touch the man sitting beside her, just as if he were truly present. But she did not. Instead she pulled her arms in closer to her body and placed her hands into lap, her fingers laced together.

They sat in silence for several moments. Rey kept her gaze focused on the ocean, but she could still sense the distortion of the landscape around her companion. Kylo Ren sat beside her, but a flickering sphere of light around him betrayed his true location. Hard metal floors and walls, along with the bleak vista of space from some window, told Rey he was actually sitting in a chamber on a spacecraft.

"You know," he said at last, "given enough time I can probably discern your exact location."

That low, seductive voice almost made Rey waver in her determination not to look at him. Almost. "I don't doubt it. But even if you do, and track me here, you will only find me, not any other members of the Alliance."

"They left you there alone? How careless of them."

"It was by my request." Rey took a deep breath, steeling herself. She knew that once she looked into his face she would not be able to look away again. She slowly turned her head.

Eyes as dark as a night without stars stared into hers. "Ah, to keep me from harming them? But what of you? Didn't they fear that I might harm you?"

"They did," Rey said, recalling Leia's concerned face. "But they, and I, felt it was a risk worth taking."

Kylo Ren studied her with an intensity that forced her fingernails into her palms. She swallowed and masked her tension with a veneer of calm.

"Interesting. I am surprised that they would be willing to risk you, especially after I told your mentor I would kill you. But then, I suppose he had not time to relay such a message to you, or your General, before he died."

"My mentor? You mean your uncle," Rey said, and had the satisfaction of seeing Kylo Ren's imperious gaze falter. Only for a second, but enough to let her know she'd scored a hit.

She wanted to taunt him again, to challenge the trust he placed in the dark side of the Force. But before she could voice such thoughts, Leia's words repeated in her head: _Do not attempt to change him. Simply be you, and be there. Be the one who does not abandon him._

"Yes, the last of the Skywalkers." Kylo Ren's sculpted, seductive, lips twisted into a sneer. "I'm sure the stars do not weep over that loss. Little good have the Skywalkers ever done the galaxy."

Rey decided it was best not to argue that point. But she lifted one hand and pointed a finger at him. "He was not the last."

Kylo Ren narrowed his dark eyes. "I have left that legacy behind. As I've told you before, my family means nothing to me now. I have chosen to kill that past in order to become my true self, without their interference or influence." He leaned in and reached for her extended fingers.

"So you say." Rey yanked away her hand and scooted back, widening the distance between them.

"Well, look at what they have done to you." Kylo Ren threw out his hands to encompass the scene he saw before him. "Left you here, unprotected. Hoping to lure me into a trap, I suppose. A rather clever plan, as far as such things go. But if this is true, it seems you are expendable. It's just as I told you before—to them you are nothing."

Rey thought of Finn's comforting hugs, Leia's concerned gaze, and Poe's bright gaze and…" Warmth rose up the back of her neck. _Poe's kiss._

She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Her memories of that kiss had distracted her far too often during her meditations. It was inconvenient then, not dangerous like now. She couldn't afford to lose her concentration when she faced off with this other dark-haired man.

"I am not nothing to them," she said, as fury replaced the sardonic expression on Kylo Ren's face. "They care about me, as I do them."

"They seek to use you," he spat out. "Just as everyone around me hoped to use me. For my powers. Do not delude yourself, Rey. Whatever they think of you now, whatever they say or do, their so-called friendship will wither in the light of your abilities in the Force. They may even claim to love you, but it is a lie."

She could tell by his anger that he'd picked up on her memory of Poe's kiss, and tucked away the implications of this reaction to ponder later.

But she knew that was only the spark that had lit his fiery outburst. He wasn't just speaking about her. Rey pressed her palms against her knees and leaned forward. "Be honest, Ben, at least with yourself. You rejected the love that was given to you. You made a lie of it, not them."

The image before her flickered as he leapt to his feet. "Love? Don't be such an innocent, Rey. Perhaps there was love once, but as I grew in power it was replaced with something else."

"What do you mean?" Rey gracefully stood to face him. "I know you mother loves you still, despite…everything."

Kylo Ren turned his face aside for a moment, lowering his dark lashes so that Rey could read nothing in his eyes. "Perhaps. My mother understands something of the Force. Something of what it truly is. More so, I think, than my uncle ever did, for all his training and skill. But"— he turned back to her, his eyes unfathomable as the deepest regions of space—"even she betrayed me. I saw it in her face, at the end, just as in all the others."

 _No, not simply space,_ Rey thought, staring deep into his eyes, _but a black hole._ Dragging everything into the fierce, inexorable, pull of its gravity. Pulling her into him like a tractor beam…

In that moment she was overcome with an intense desire to fall into that darkness, sliding into its depths like slipping into the black velvet folds of sleep. But no. She could not. She could stand up to him, could even stand beside him. But she could not give into the seduction of the dark forces that now ruled his heart. Because if she fell now she knew that, like a black hole, his force would crush her. She would not become a part of him. She would be obliterated.

 _Time it is not_ , said that strange voice in her head. _No union yet can there be._

The words snapped her back into herself. "What did you see that could be so horrible that it would send you down this path, Ben? What could you have seen?"

He swept his cape over his shoulder and stared down at her over his hawk-like nose. Like a great bird of prey—majestic and dangerous.

"The same thing you will see one day, Rey. In the eyes of all your friends and compatriots, despite the love they say they hold for you now. One day, when you have come more fully into your abilities, when you have demonstrated your full power in the Force, you will look at them and you will see it." His gazed softened as he continued to stare at her. "The look in their eyes that will label you forever, that will turn even you into a monster." He stepped forward, until they were toe-to-toe, and pressed his gloved hand to her cheek before she could move away. "And you will see it, Rey, sooner or later. That one look in all their eyes. The look that will cast you out. That will exclude you and damn you forever. Fear."


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

In that moment, before Rey could reply or react, Kylo Ren lowered his hand and wheeled around as a another tall figure appeared in the Force-vision. He barked out some question that Rey couldn't understand and the vision disintegrated into wisps and was swept away. Left staring at a patch of grass and sky, Rey pressed her own hand to her cheek, where she could still feel his touch.

 _It was just another of his twisted mind games_ , she thought, dropping her hand as swiftly as if it had been scorched. It was merely a ploy, meant to unsettle her. Intended to spin her off balance.

Because surely no one she trusted, or loved, would ever shun her for the very thing they admired the most—her innate Force abilities. No, certainly not. Wasn't that the hope they all held—Finn, Poe, Leia, and the rest of the Alliance—that she could rise up in the Light and help defeat the Darkness?

Rey rubbed the sudden chill from her bare arms with both hands and made her way back to her cavern home.

She'd set up a cot in one sloped corner, beside a natural ledge where she could store those things she needed close at hand, like her blaster and the refurbished light saber. She also kept the Jedi texts there. She'd planned it carefully, ensuring everything essential could be hastily grabbed if she had to flee her island retreat at a moment's notice.

Because Kylo Ren might track her down. That she knew. Or send a squadron to take her captive. Or kill her. But no, she didn't believe he would go that far, not anymore. Not after they had talked that last time. She had looked into his eyes and hadn't read any murderous intent in them.

Not towards her, at least.

Several days passed without any communication between them, although she was constantly aware of his life energy, dimming the edges of her consciousness like the shadow of a eclipse moving over a sun.

It was only after she'd fallen asleep one evening, face down on her bed, one of the Jedi texts open beneath her splayed fingers, that he appeared to her again.

"Rey."

She sat up with a start, her fingers instinctively reaching for the light saber. Without thinking, she used a bit of Force manipulation to turn on the lanterns in the cavern, then spun around on the bed, her weapon pointed toward the opposite wall.

Kylo Ren stepped out of the shadows. He was dressed as if he too had just woken from sleep, in a loose white tunic, unbelted, over black pants. His thick dark hair was mussed and the scar on his face—the one she'd given him—stood out in stark relief against his pale skin.

Too pale, and pulled too tightly over his high cheekbones. He appeared to be in some sort of distress. Rey lowered the light saber to her lap. "Ben, what is it? I can feel the conflict in your mind. What's happening?"

"You must leave this place," he said, his gaze fixed on her with such intensity she feared it would burn a hole in her forehead.

Rey jumped to her feet, still clutching the light saber. "Why?"

Kylo Ren lifted his shoulders in a casual gesture that didn't fool Rey, who could sense the tumult of his thoughts. "General Hux has captured and interrogated one of your rebel pilots. He has discovered your secret. He knows where you are. I'm aware you have a ship, so leave. Leave now."

 _Poe,_ Rey thought, stumbling backwards until her right calf hit the edge of the bed.

"No, not your precious flyboy," Kylo Ren snapped, his dark eyes alight with anger. "Another one. Female."

 _Poe's co-pilot._ Rey straightened and forced any waver from her voice. "Interrogated? You mean tortured."

"I do, and no, I had nothing to do with it. I wasn't even present. I was off on another mission and have only heard about all this second-hand."

"So now, you too must know where I am."

A spasm twitched Rey's own jaw as Kylo Ren ground his teeth before replying. "No. I was nowhere near Hux when all this went down, and I couldn't obtain the information before he took off with a small force on another mission. I will attempt to question him when he returns, although I expect him to try to block me from obtaining your location. He is also using this to play a strategic game with me, you see. But make no mistake, he is determined to find you."

Rey moved closer to the Force-vision of the Supreme Leader. "For what purpose?"

"To capture you. To interrogate you as well. Do not imagine you could stand against this, Rey, despite your ability in the Force. It would include torture you cannot possibly imagine."

"I have a pretty good imagination." Rey frowned, thinking of Poe's co-pilot. "Unfortunately."

"Not enough for this." Kylo Ren closed the gap between them in two long strides. "I pray you never have to know, but they can break you, Rey, if they wish. There are ways…"

Rey gazed up into his face, realizing she could have read the torment in his dark eyes even if she hadn't had the power to sense his emotions. "Developed by you, no doubt."

"Some, but that is irrelevant. What matters now is that you take that fighter and leave. Hux has vowed to find my…to locate General Organa. He doubts my determination to do so."

"He is trying to wrest command from you then?"

"Yes, and believes he can strike the deciding blow if he can kill Leia Organa, and all those closest to her. Which would, he thinks, give him the upper hand in the First Order."

"And he also believes I can lead him to her? Or"—Rey tightened her grip on the light saber—"act as bait?"

"Not only that." Kylo Ren stepped closer, until Rey could feel the energy radiating off of him in waves. "I mean, not only as bait for the Rebel Forces. Also as leverage."

"Against you." It was not a question. Rey lifted her free hand, palm out, and waited.

Kylo Ren raised his own, ungloved, hand and held it with the palm only a breath away from hers. "Yes. He knows of our connection. He suspects…"

"You might sacrifice the leadership to save me?" A wisp of amusement flitted over Rey's face. "Is he that much a fool?"

"He is no fool," said Kylo Ren, as he pressed his palm against hers.


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

A rush of emotions swept over Rey like an ocean wave, swamping her mind. Anger, fear, pride, hate, resolve—and something else. Something like desire…

The press of skin against skin, connecting them in a way that his previous gloved touch had not, sent her reeling. Only his fingers closing over her hand, holding onto her, kept her from sinking to the floor.

 _He is not really here_ , Rey told herself. _I can step away. I can break this connection whenever I wish._

Whenever she wished…Rey interlaced her fingers with those of the Supreme Leader. The boy who had rejected his mother, and killed his father, and sought to destroy his uncle. Now a man wholly given over to the dark side of the Force.

No, not entirely. He was also still Ben Solo. That part of him remained, despite his attempts to drown it—she felt it move like a shadowy creature beneath the surging sea of Kylo Ren's emotions. In the end, Rey realized, that was all she had to hold on to, that ghost of his true self.

But that was also why she had to hold on.

"Rey," he said, leaning in so close that his lips brushed her ear. "Tell me where you are."

She forced her body to remain absolutely still. "I can't."

He jerked up his head. "You mean you won't."

"No, I mean I can't." Rey tightened her grip on his hand. "You see, there are only three people who know the exact location of this planet. I am not one of them."

Kylo Ren swore and dropped her hand, casting it aside with so much force she was afraid her wrist would snap. But no, he was not actually there. It was all an illusion. She took two steps back and shook the phantom pain from her fingers.

"You foolish girl, why would you agree to such a thing? I can't help you if I can't find you."

Rey lifted her chin and met his furious gaze without blinking. "You also can't track me back to your mother, or anyone else in the Alliance. That was the plan, you see. I was supposed to allow our connection to resume, but without endangering anyone else."

Kylo Ren shoved back the dark hair that had tumbled over his forehead, his face suffused with frustration. "To set a trap for me, then? Was that the plan—entice me into your confidence so that you could track my movements and send your rebel forces after me?"

"No." Rey spoke the word firmly, but quietly, hoping to quell his rising fury.

"No? Well, perhaps you were simply pumping me for information on the First Order. Whatever—it seems you were quite willing to make use of me for your own purposes. And, like a proper little Jedi, also willing to risk your own life for what you call the greater good. Even though sacrificing yourself for your insipid Alliance is nothing but a ridiculous, stupid, waste."

Rey tucked her light saber into the sash of her tunic. "What would it matter? You said I was nothing."

Anger flashed in Kylo Ren's dark eyes. "I also said—but not to me."

"So—what am I to you?" There it was, the question she hadn't dared to ask before. The one that had spun like a BB droid through her thoughts for so long.

Kylo Ren crossed his arms over his chest. "You must leave this place, Rey. If Hux finds you here…"

So he would not answer her question. As Rey stared at his handsome, but implacable face, she sensed the tumult roiling through his mind. _Perhaps,_ she thought, _he is not merely being stubborn. Perhaps he does not know the answer yet._

"But that is exactly why I can't leave," she replied, fighting back the tremor in her voice. "If General Hux has sent a squadron ahead, or even scouts, they may be waiting out there in space, beyond the atmosphere of this planet. Waiting for me to make a run for it. If they know my location, they also know that all I have is a small fighter. I can't travel far without contacting another Alliance ship. All Hux has to do is wait, and I could lead him right to those I most want to protect."

Kylo Ren expelled an exasperated breath. "You can't stay here. If his troops land and capture you…" He stared right into her eyes. "And they will, Rey. You are strong in the Force, and you are a skilled fighter. I will give you that. But such things won't protect you against a large enough contingent of First Order soldiers. You have to know that."

"I know," she said, straightening to her full height. "But I _will_ fight. And when I believe they are about to best me, I will make sure that I am not captured." She tapped her fingers against her light saber. "I won't let them take me alive."

There it was—her answer. In the sheer panic that swept over Kylo Ren's face. In the pain that dimmed his beautiful eyes.

An answer that both thrilled and terrified her.

"No! You must not do such a thing." He leapt forward until they were standing toe-to-toe. "Promise me you won't do anything so foolish, Rey." He gripped her shoulders. "Tell me who knows your location, and somehow I will find them, and then you."

"So you can capture me instead of General Hux?"

He gave her a little shake. "So I can save you from him."

She looked up into his face. "No."

"You still think I am in league with Hux? That I would betray you in such a way?" Kylo Ren pulled her to his chest. "Foolish child. I would never turn you over to him."

Rey felt his heart, beating wildly against her ear.

"Perhaps not," she murmured. Although her words were muffled in the folds of his tunic, she knew he could hear her. She needn't speak aloud for him to be able to do that. "But you might keep me for yourself. I would still be a prisoner. Someone you can use as leverage against your mother and the Alliance. And I will not be that. Not for you. Not for anyone."

"Rey…" Kylo Ren brushed her hair with his lips. "Do not do this. I may be a monster—I may live in the dark and you in the light but still, we are more alike than anyone else in the galaxy. Do not condemn me to eternal loneliness. You are my only hope…"

A shiver coursed through Rey's body at those words. She did not recall ever hearing them before, and yet they reverberated in her mind like a memory. "No," she said, pulling away from him, "do not place all your hopes in me. I'm not your salvation, Ben."

He swore again and turned away, until she could only see a sliver of his face. "I do not desire salvation."

Rey recalled Leia's words and stilled the trembling of her lips before she spoke again. "Whatever you desire, you must find it in yourself first."

"Spoken like a true Jedi," Kylo Ren replied, his tone dripping with sarcasm. "Very well, if you refuse to save yourself, I must do what I can without your help." He shot her a furious, yet despairing, glance over his shoulder. "Fight then, Rey. To the end. But take no hasty action. I will find you yet. I swear it by the Force we both believe in. Dark or light, it is all the same."

His seemingly solid form wavered and faded before her eyes, until Rey was left staring at a stone wall.

She crossed back to her bed and gazed down at the Jedi text. _Dark or light, it is all the same…_ Was that the truth? Had Ben Solo seen, or somehow sensed, something she had not yet realized?

Rey pressed her hand, the one he had grasped so tightly, to her breast, and felt her own heart beating like some creature trapped in a cage.

If light and dark were not mutually exclusive, could everything change? Could two people torn between those extremes somehow find a way to coexist?

She touched the open pages of the Jedi text with her fingertips.

Was there truly a way to find such a balance?


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Leia had dozed off in her chair, the holographic report from one of her squadrons repeating in a loop. When she woke with a start she immediately waved her hand to silence it.

She'd been dreaming. As so often in the past, the dream was of Ben when he was small. Somehow her mind had resurrected a string of memories of him coming to her to show off new discoveries—a bit of mineral scraped from the surface of a new planet they'd visited, or a feather from some winged creature that didn't yet have a name. He was always so curious and so determined to discover how things worked. What they meant in the greater scheme of things. How they fit in.

Which he never did. Leia sighed and tossed her heavy braid behind her shoulder. She once had worn her hair loose at night, if only to please Han, but those days were gone. Now she had to be ready to take command at a moment's notice and Han…She rubbed her fist over her eyes, willing back any tears. He wouldn't want her to cry. Not over him.

"Tell a joke at my funeral," he'd always told her. And she had. Although it had been a memorial service, sometime after the fact.

And they hadn't even lived together, not for long at any one time, for many years before his death.

 _His murder_ , said that cold voice in her head. But she couldn't think of it like that. Not and remain sane.

Her thoughts drifted, as they often did these days, to the girl hiding on a remote planet of oceans and islands. Leia wasn't sure, even now, that she'd done the right thing in sending Rey away. Or in commanding her to reopen the Force-bond with Ben. Perhaps there was no coming back for her son. Maybe she'd simply doomed the girl to a lonely death, or worse.

But no, in her heart Leia knew her choice had been right. She'd felt it, as she'd once felt the bond between her soul and that of a stranger—a blonde, blue-eyed boy who'd turned out to be her brother. Her twin.

 _Oh Luke,_ she thought, _if ever I needed your counsel, your strength in the Force, it is now._

But although Leia firmly believed that Luke's spirit lived on, he had not yet responded to any of her one-sided conversations with him. Which didn't mean, of course, that he had not heard her.

Strange were the ways of the Force. Leia understood that, as Han never had. To him, it was a useful tool—a boost a Force-sensitive being could use in a battle to better the odds. Or something that could prove helpful in piloting a spacecraft. Han had never really understood the deeper aspects of the Force. Just as he had never truly understood his son.

Ben was different from the beginning. Tempestuous and fiery as some volcanic planet one minute, quiet and still as space the next. His emotions seemed to alter from moment to moment— ricocheting like blaster fire off the metal surface of the Millennium Falcon's hull.

He had been a difficult child to love. Leia understood this, although she'd never suffered the problems relating to him that had plagued Han. Lei could see that it wasn't obstinacy that made her son balk at normal human interaction, it was simply that Ben's mind worked differently than others. He didn't think about things the way other children did. His concerns and anxieties always seemed to rise over situations that others would simply laugh away. And then he would find humor in something that appalled his companions.

 _It was the Force,_ Leia thought, _working through him. Making him view the universe in a way that no one else understood. Except perhaps Luke, sometimes_.

Which was why she had sent Ben to study with her brother.

That had not ended well, of course. Leia wasn't sure what had happened to cause Ben to turn against Luke, but she knew, deep inside, that there was more to the story than her brother had ever shared.

Leia shook her head. Why was she dwelling on memories of her prodigal son this evening? She had so many other concerns. She couldn't allow her sorrow over her child to occupy all her thoughts.

Perhaps it was just the shadows, shifting in one corner of her room until they almost seemed to coalescence into a human form. A tall, slender form that reminded her of something.

Or someone.

"Mother," a familiar voice whispered in her ear. "Tell me its name."

Leia jumped to her feet. "Ben?" She peered into the corner, but could only make out the nebulous, shifting shadow of a man. "What name?"

"The planet. Where you sent the girl. I need its name."

The desire behind this demand hit Leia with the force of an asteroid field. "I cannot tell you that, Ben."

"You must. Or she will die."

Leia moved closer to the shadowy projection of her son. "Why should I provide you with her location when you pose the greatest danger to her?"

"Because I do not. General Hux has found her, through one of your pilots captured by the First Order. Another young woman who is, I'm afraid, now quite dead."

Leia sucked in a deep breath. Another sacrifice. How many more would she have to offer up before the universe was satisfied? "And why would you help Rey? Aren't you and Hux fighting on the same side?"

"Not in this instance."

"So I am supposed to trust you now? Why?" Leia stiffened her spine, determined not to allow her emotions to overwhelm her. She had not seen him, or even spoken to him in so long…

"Open your mind to me, Mother. Rely on that light side of the Force you value so much, and you will see that I am telling you the truth."

Leia closed her eyes for a moment, willing the connection to deepen. Could she trust him, even if she wished it with all her heart?

No, she couldn't rely on her heart, or even her mind, to speak true. She had to allow something else to sweep over her. She had to trust in the Force, and draw her answer from its blinding, burning, light.

"If I tell you," she said after a moment of silence, "you must promise me that you will not harm her."

"I will do more than that," said her son. "I will swear it."

Then Leia spoke a word. The name of a planet so often overlooked, few ever knew its name. But she knew it, and she spoke it aloud.

In that moment, the shadow vaporized like mist hit by the rays of a rising sun, and all sense of her son was swept away.

Leia didn't try to stop the tears this time. She allowed them to dampen her cheeks as she made her way to her communications console. She didn't even wipe them away before she flicked open the comm and barked out an order in a perfectly controlled voice:

"Send Poe Dameron to me."


	12. Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

Unsure of how close General Hux and his followers might already be to her location, Rey spent the next several days watching the skies, refreshing her familiarity with the controls of her fighter, and practicing her light saber skills.

In her heart she knew that Kylo Ren was right—despite her abilities, she was no match for a full contingent of soldiers. But she refused to give up without a fight. Hux probably considered her an easy mission—just a girl with no back-up plan and limited resources. That was fine. She actually hoped he would underestimate her. It would work to her advantage if he believed she was a "nothing."

 _Let him come_ , she thought, practicing a complicated pattern of thrusts and parries with her light saber. _Let all of them come. Just let them attempt to capture me._

They would not. On that point she would not waver, despite all of Kylo Ren's commands and admonishments. Rey spun and flipped, maintaining her balance throughout her complex maneuvers. She knew that Kylo Ren was concerned about her, for reasons of his own, but he was not her master. She owed him no fealty, and refused to blindly follow his demand that she wait for him. If she was faced with capture, and the torture that might force her to betray her compatriots, she'd do whatever was necessary to prevent any harm befalling the Alliance.

She would die to protect the only family she'd ever known. Maybe Kylo Ren couldn't understand that since he had abandoned his own family. And even himself, Rey thought, remembering her glimpses of Ben Solo beneath the mask, now invisible to most, that Kylo Ren still wore.

Rey leapt up the face of one of the glittering, rose-colored boulders and flipped backwards, landing on her feet, the light saber at the ready. She had no wish to die, but she had vowed she'd turn her light saber on herself before she'd allow her actions to harm those she loved. And she would do it. If necessary.

 _The sacrifice would be worth it_ , she thought, as she swung the weapon through the air in a graceful arc. _For Finn, and Poe, and General Organa, and Rose, and Chewie, and all the rest_.

As she paused for a moment to catch her breath, a voice resonated through her mind. Not the strangely cadenced tones she couldn't identify, or even the familiar voice of Kylo Ren, but rather another she had not heard in some time.

It was the man she'd once hoped would teach her the ways of the Force. A man who no longer walked among the living—Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master. _"Rey, think carefully."_ His words were clear as the cloudless sky.

Rey cast her gaze about wildly but soon realized that Luke had not chosen to project a physical form. "I have," she said at length. "I will not throw my life away, but if necessity demands a sacrifice, I will offer it gladly."

 _"_ _But you should not."_ Luke's words were not tethered to any specific location—they seemed to envelop Rey like the mist rising from the sea.

Rey recalled lessons from the Jedi texts she'd been studying. They had taught her that Force was not a separate thing, not something apart, but rather was present in every molecule of matter. In the vast spaces between atoms as well as between the stars. "You speak to me through the Force. You know its true nature, its real power. So you must understand that I'm a very tiny thread in the pattern. My death will only be a miniscule blip across space and time. It will barely cause a ripple. But"—Rey lifted her light saber in a somber salute"—if it can save those I love, those who trust in me, won't that be enough?"

 _"_ _It would be more than enough, but you are missing the point. No one is unessential, Rey. Every thread in the tapestry is needed to create the whole. Pluck out one, no matter how thin or short, and you may unravel everything."_

These words resonated throughout Rey's body, pulsing as if borne by her blood. "But many die every day," she replied "despite their worth."

 _"_ _Yes, and that is a mystery the Force will not reveal to even its most devoted acolytes. Death comes to all—when and why, who knows? But one thing I do know is that your time has not yet arrived. I can sense something of what you will become, of what you were meant to do. And dying now will not serve the Force, or your friends, in the end."_

Rey bowed her head over her hands, clutching the light saber like a torch. "But if I'm captured, and tortured, I might reveal information that must remain secret. I can't take that chance. I won't betray them."

 _"_ _No, you will not. Even in the gravest extremity. Trust in yourself, Rey, as well as the Force. Do not give into your fears. Because that leads to terrible mistakes, and even to the Dark Side. You see, I have learned that the dark ways do not rise out of some innate evil, but rather from unexamined and uncontrolled fear and despair."_

"You speak of you nephew?"

 _"_ _Yes. And my father. And me. Oh, I never completely fell into the pit, but that was due more to the love of others, like my sister, than my own merits. And I must confess that I slipped down its sides from time to time. With terrible results."_

There was a brutal honesty in his words that compelled Rey to respond in kind. "I too have felt it—the pull of the darkness. I have sensed its call. Deep within me, I know that I could fall as easily as anyone else. As fully as Ben. That is my greatest fear."

 _"_ _As it was mine. But we all harbor that darkness inside us, coiled like a serpent in our chests. We can't banish it completely, we can't obliterate it. Not without destroying our hearts. We must simply learn to control our darkness. We must accept it, know it will always be a part of us, and…choose." Luke's words rose in volume and power, like the wind rising off the ocean. "It's always about choice, Rey. Moment to moment—decisions must be made, actions must be taken. I know the Force radiates through space and time to guide us, but its ultimate goals I do not understand, not even now. Some say we are ruled by fate, but I know it is not the supreme force. Always there is the power of choice."_

Hope unfurled in Rey like the ferns that grew under the planet's frond trees. "Then I may choose to live, trusting I will never betray my friends? No matter what?"

 _"_ _No matter what. Because you are not alone, Rey. Others will always stand with you, will share their strength and comfort. The long line of the Jedi among them. Including a mighty master named Yoda, who I believe has already spoken to you. Including my father, who made a choice to embrace the light when it mattered most. Including me."_

In that moment Rey felt Luke's presence dissipate on the salt-tinged breeze. As she gazed out over the ocean, the rolling waves seemed to repeat his final words in a never-ending rhythm. _Including me. Including me._

But then another sound rose over the waves—a sound that placed Rey on alert.

Engines roared as a small spacecraft pierced the atmosphere and soared toward the beach. Rey slipped behind the closest rock formation to watch the ship land.

It was a First Order shuttle. Rey tightened her grip on her light saber. Only one small ship, but perhaps it was merely a scout. She scanned the sky and spied no other craft, but that meant nothing. There could be an entire fleet of General Hux's ships gathered above the planet like a flock of predatory birds. Hovering overhead and waiting to swoop down when their prey was spotted.

The hatch opened and the gangplank slid down. Rey shaded her eyes and then swallowed a gasp as she recognized the pilot.

Tall enough to have to bend his neck to avoid hitting the top of the hatch, and imposing despite his slender build. Dressed all in black.

Kylo Ren, come to help her. Or capture her. _Or perhaps,_ Rey thought, readying her body and mind for either flight or combat, _both._

She takes one breath, he takes the next.

They are bound together, pulse matching pulse, heartbeat mirroring heartbeat.

There was no point in running. He would find her, wherever she hid.

He would always find her.


	13. Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Rey stepped out from behind the boulder as Kylo Ren strode across the beach and climbed the hill to meet her.

"Still here," he said, standing before her. "Just as I knew you would be."

Rey lifted her chin and met his intense gaze without flinching. "I told you I wouldn't run. That it was too dangerous."

He quirked one dark eyebrow. "And this isn't?"

"I took that gamble." Rey studied his aristocratic face for a moment. "So where's your backup? I thought you'd come marching in, flanked by guards."

"No, I ordered the ships to hold back. There are only two, by the way."

"Really? So apparently you and General Hux decided I wasn't much of a threat."

"Hux and I decided nothing. He isn't even here yet. He's supposed to rendezvous with the lead ship in a day or so, but right now he's busy negotiating with some arms dealers on Canto Bight." Kylo Ren yanked off his black gloves and tucked them into the belt at his waist, next to his light saber. "He seemed to think that was his best course of action, after I mentioned going to Canto Bight myself. I think he may have had some idea of making a few side deals, or establishing himself as the true leader of the First Order in the minds of the weapons dealers. Or some such thing."

Rey looked him up and down. "That was your plan—to use his ambition to get him out of the way."

The faintest of smiles curled Kylo Ren's lips. "It was."

"And the limited number of ships?"

"Hux wanted more, but I made a few pointed comments about how sending an entire fleet to capture one little girl would demonstrate a rather…weak grip on power."

Rey's own lips twitched. "Using his faults against him, I see."

"Always." Kylo Ren spread wide his bare hands. "Including his need to keep order in the ranks. Despite our current differences, he will not allow any First Order troops to know that there is dissention between us. Not yet. Not until he consolidates his power. So it was easy enough for me to command my ship and its partner to stay back while I flew down alone to capture you."

"Is that what you intend?" Rey looked deeper into his dark eyes. "No, it isn't, I see."

"No. I have another plan. I ordered the ships to make no move on this planet. They have been commanded to wait for my signal, to prepare for the shuttle's return. But"—Kylo Ren tossed one side of his black cloak over his shoulder—"the shuttle will not return."

Rey took a step closer. He was truly, physically, standing before her this time, not simply present as a Force projection. Waves of energy radiated from his body, and the scent of his skin filled her nostrils, making her head spin. She straightened to her full height and willed the dizziness away. "You plan to use my fighter."

"Yes. We can leave together and, if we time it properly, slip away unnoticed. We must wait for Hux's arrival, though. I have it all worked out."

"Of course you do," Rey said, with a wry smile. "But the fighter can't travel far. Not on its own."

Kylo Ren narrowed his eyes. "There is a larger craft waiting for us, enough distance away that Hux and his ships can't spy it. I have also ordered the troops on the two ships above to greet Hux with all due pomp and ceremony. Which should please him immensely."

"And give us a window of opportunity to leave without them noticing a small fighter blasting off the planet?"

"Hopefully."

"How will you know when Hux arrives?"

"I know him well. I can sense him through the Force. Until then, we must simply wait. Perhaps in that cave I saw through one of our shared visions?"

"Very well, follow me." Rey turned and strode toward her quarters.

She had to work this through, to take time to think. While Kylo Ren's plan was probably her best chance to flee the planet without endangering the Alliance, she wasn't certain that giving herself over to him was her best option.

But she would have another choice. She always would. Eventually. Especially if she played along now, and allowed Kylo Ren to believe that she would continue to do so.

She simply had to prevent him from guessing her true intentions, that was all.

Rey swallowed back a hysterical burst of laugher. She could feel his very pulse, as if it beat against her own wrist. How could she ever hope to fool him? But she had to try.

"Here we are," she said as they entered the cave. "I hope you will forgive the inferior accommodations, Supreme Leader."

"Don't call me that," he snapped, striding to the center of the make-shift room. "You are not one of my soldiers."

"What should I call you, then?" Rey tilted her head to the side and examined him. She could see, and sense, the emotions warring beneath that haughty face. "I know my preference, but perhaps you would not wish that."

He turned away, his attention apparently captured by the short row of books that sat on the ledge above her bed. "Jedi texts? Where did you get these?"

"From Luke Skywalker. He had them on Ahch-To."

Kylo Ren spun around, his dark eyes flashing. "He gave them to you?"

"Not exactly. Something, someone, told me to grab them when I fled the island. Luke did not know."

"Someone?" He strode closer, looming over her.

"In my head. A voice. A voice I've heard a few times since as well. It speaks with a strange cadence."

"Yoda." Kylo Ren spat out the word. "So he continues to interfere."

"He was a Jedi Master, or so I've heard. Strong in the Force."

"Yes. Dead before I was ever born, but his spirit seems to live on."

"As we all will," Rey said, with conviction.

"You believe this?" Kylo Ren's voice softened and something flickered in his eyes. That other part of him, still lurking in his shadowed soul.

Rey lifted one hand and gently traced the scar on his face with her fingers. "Yes, Ben. Yes, I believe it."

He captured her falling hand in his own and pulled her close. "Eternity is a dream, Rey. A lie that those who draw upon the Force, dark side or light, tell themselves to make their deaths mean something. But all that really matters is this life. Now."

Rey locked her knees so she wouldn't collapse to the floor. He had held her in a Force-vision, but this was different. Real. Immediate.

Something some part of her desired…

Kylo Ren tipped up her chin with one finger. "All we have is now. Nothing more is promised, ever. We must take what we need, what we desire, while we can. Don't you understand that?"

"I hear you, but I also see your eyes, Ben. You don't believe your words, not really." Rey refused to look away, despite the intensity of Kylo Ren's fierce gaze.

"I do. You should be able to feel that in our Force-bond, Rey."

"I feel…" Rey pressed her palms against his shoulders, stilling her trembling hands. There was no way she could deny him the truth, not when they stood this close. Not when they touched. "I feel your heart beating, the blood flowing through your veins. I sense your pulse, the energy that infuses every bone and muscle. I know what you are thinking, Ben. In this moment, more solid than any other plan or goal. One thought, one desire, rising above the chaotic sea of your mind. Breaking through the dark surface, reaching for the light."

"And what is that?" Kylo Ren leaned in, until his lips were only a breath away from hers. "What is that one desire, Rey?"

She simply sighed and closed her eyes and he…

He kissed her.


	14. Chapter 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

She sank into the depths, her breath knocked away like in her plunge into the deep pool beneath Ahch-To. But in the next second she shot back up through the silky water, breaking the surface and flying up into the sky. Then she felt her body spin through a vast galaxy of black nothingness sprinkled with the gem-bright glint of suns and planets before falling back again. Falling into darkness…

But not alone. There was another heartbeat thundering beside hers. Another soul caught up in a net spun of pure energy. Something so powerful, she feared for her sanity. Something so terrifying and beautiful, its meaning could not be spoken. Could never be explained.

Could only be.

He swept her up into his arms and carried her over to the bed.

At first, Rey allowed the waves of passion to carry her past the shoals of her concerns. But as their kisses grew more intense, something deep inside of her fought back, battling her desperate longing for Ben's touch. Realization rose up like a firebreak—the flames of reason beating back the fire of desire.

 _No,_ she thought. _We aren't prepared for this. We aren't ready for such a union. Not yet. Not yet._

Rey struggled against his gentle but firm hold. Using her will, and every bit of power she could draw from the Force, she shoved him away.

As Kylo Ren fell back against the rough stone wall that bordered one edge of the bed, he flung up his arm and knocked her blaster and the Jedi texts across the room. "What the hell?" he roared.

Rey sat up, crossing her arms over her breasts and clutching her upper arms with both hands. "We can't do this, Ben. Not now. We are still too far apart in the Force. It will obliterate one of us, or tear us both to pieces."

"Don't be ridiculous." Anger and hurt danced over his face, vying for dominance. "How can you sit here, so close to me, and spout that antiquated Jedi mumbo-jumbo? It's long past time to leave all that nonsense behind."

"It isn't nonsense." Rey leaned forward, placed her hands on either side of his face, and looked deep into his eyes. "Can't you feel it? I know you must, even if you won't admit it. The light and the dark pulling us apart? If we go on, go too far, I think…" She dropped her hands and sat back. "We will destroy one another. Not meaning to, of course. But if the Force rises in each of us, as I fear it may, what might happen?"

He dropped his head and stared down at his hands, which were shaking like a life pod entering heavy atmosphere. "No—the Force is merely a tool. A weapon to be used by those who can control it. If anything is tearing us apart, it's your belief in that ancient, false, religion."

"It isn't a religion to me," Rey said, covering his trembling hands with hers. "I don't see it that way, not anymore. It's part of the fabric of reality—no more, and no less, than the stars, or the sand on that beach outside. It just is. But because it is, it cannot be ignored. No more than we can blithely step out of a hatch and ignore the vacuum of space."

Kylo Ren lifted his head and stared at her. "Rey, I know you believe this, but you are wrong."

"No, I am not," she said fiercely, then shook her head, the hair he'd loosened falling over her shoulders. "You see, we are still fighting to see which of us is right, and which one is wrong. We can't move forward like this, constantly trying to drag each other onto another path. Seeking to best each other. Always trying to win."

"So"—he leapt to his feet and began to pace about the small chamber—"you do not want me then? You feel no love, or even desire, for me?"

"I didn't say that." Rey pulled her tunic back up over her shoulders and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. "If you clear the anger from your mind, and recall things correctly, I think my response to your kiss pretty much answers that question."

He stopped short and turned to her. "All I know is that I feel something for you I've never felt for any other living creature. Something draws me to you, a connection that tortures me when we are apart. I need you, Rey, as I need nothing else. I only feel truly alive when you are with me. Do not abandon me." His voice, usually so strong and seductive, fell to a strangled whisper. "Please."

Rey flinched, recalling Leia's words. "But we can't be lovers, Ben. Not now. Not yet. Can you stay near me, and make peace with that?"

Resignation replaced the pain in his dark eyes. "If I must."

"Then I will remain connected to you. Either in person, or in our Force-bond. But we must work to learn how to be together, Ben. We must struggle to obtain the balance that will allow us, maybe, to be more." She stood and crossed to him. "Will you accept this challenge?"

"I will," he said, lifting one of her hands to his lips. "But I expect it will be the hardest training I've ever faced."

"Good," she said, with a little smile. "You require difficult challenges, I think."

His lips twisted into a semblance of an answering smile. "So, shall you be my master, then?"

"Only if you will be mine," Rey said.

Before Kylo Ren replied, he raised his hand and turned away, as if listening for something. "A ship. Coming in for a landing. Not Hux, though. Someone else." He spun around and fixed Rey with a fiery gaze.

Her fingers immediately reached for her light saber. "Who is it?"

"Don't you know?" His dark eyes mocked her in a haughty, yet now, she confessed, enticing way. "Rather clever of them to slip past the First Order ships, I must say. But also extremely foolish."

Rey took a deep breath and focused her thoughts, until the image of a familiar face filled her mind.

"No, no, what are you doing here?" she murmured. "You shouldn't have come. This is last place you should be, Poe."


	15. Chapter 15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Leia looked up from the darkened monitor built into the surface of her desk, realizing that she hadn't heard a word that Kalista had said. Something about modifications to blasters that would better their aim, or some such thing.

"That sounds wonderful. Keep up the good work. And thank you," she told the younger woman.

Kalista blinked rapidly. "Very well, General. But just so we're clear—you really don't mind if I break down a few of the First Order weapons we recently confiscated for parts? I thought I heard you say something about keeping them intact. You know, to use when our spies go undercover."

Leia waved her off with one hand. An casual gesture, as if she hadn't just drifted into some other realm of reality, and had been listening closely all along. "Yes, yes, that's fine." She countered the young woman's inquiring crystalline gaze with a smile. "Just leave two or three intact for our spy missions. We won't need that many. We rarely get a chance to infiltrate the First Order these days."

"As you command," Kalista said, inclining her head in the tiniest of salutes.

Leia, who didn't require even such limited formalities, lifted her hand in acknowledgement. "Now, back to work with you. I have some reports I need to go over."

Kalista bobbed her head again and headed out the door.

The mention of reports wasn't exactly a lie. Of course, there were always reports. But Leia was not concerned with such things in this moment. She was still puzzling over the message that had come to her in the night. In a dream.

She'd seen Luke, as he had looked when they first met. So young and idealistic and eager for adventure. They'd been in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon. Just the two of them, with Luke piloting the craft. In the dream, Leia had felt the presence of others on the ship, and had kept casting her gaze about for any glimpse of Chewbacca and Han. But she'd seen no one else, only Luke.

"You must travel back," he'd said. "Check out those old reports."

"What reports?" Leia had asked, her mind distracted by thoughts of Han. "Reports on the Death Star?"

"No. You know that is gone, Leia," Luke had said, as he had turned to her. "Long ago."

He'd appeared older then—resembling the man she'd seen in that Force-vision on Crait.

"Then what report should I be re-examining?" she'd asked, as Luke had jumped the Falcon into hyperspace.

The stars had swept by like ribbons of light. Usually the jump only lasted for a moment or two but this seemed to go on forever.

 _A dream,_ Leia had thought. _It's only a dream_.

"The girl's report," Luke had said. "The one she made after the fact. After she saw Supreme Leader Snoke killed."

"What do you mean? I've read that report several times. What's so important about it now?"

Luke's gaze had been fixed on the streaming stars. "It's what Snoke said. Something about the light and the dark." As he'd glanced back at Leia he'd become suddenly young again. "Snoke was sunk deep in the Dark Side, but he still had a great connection to the Force. And I believe that connection allowed him to receive a message that he transmitted without truly realizing its import."

"What message?" Leia had asked, as Luke had faded away and the cockpit had dissolved into wisps of light. There had been no response. The dream had ended.

"What message?" she'd asked herself, as she'd accessed Rey's holographic report and watched it before Kalista had appeared.

Light and dark. Snoke had said something about that, but what did it mean?

Leia pulled up the report again. What were the exact words? She had to write them down this time.

 _Darkness rises, and light to meet it._

It seemed simple enough, yet Leia sensed there was more behind these words. Something Luke wanted her to understand. Something Snoke had not.

Leia closed her eyes and opened her mind to the Force, allowing it to sweep clean her cobwebby thoughts.

 _And light to meet it._

Leia leapt to her feet. Of course, of course. She understood now.

She reached for the device that would allow her to send a scrambled message to Poe Dameron's BB droid. She'd had one of the Alliance technicians set that up before Poe left, feeling an urgency over it that she couldn't explain. Another thing she hadn't understood at the time.

Now she did. She was meant to send this message, just as she had been chosen to receive it.

"Thank you, Luke," she said aloud, before speaking the essential words into the device.


	16. Chapter 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

"I will walk out to meet him. You should stay here," Rey told Kylo Ren as soon as she realized that Poe had landed somewhere nearby. She lifted her hand in a silencing motion as he protested. "Be reasonable, Ben. I doubt a pilot of the Alliance will welcome the Supreme Leader of the First Order."

"Except with blaster fire. Yes, you are right. Damn it." Kylo Ren ran his hands through his thick hair before pressing his palms against his temples.

 _As if to contain all his chaotic emotions,_ Rey thought. As he dropped his arms to his sides, she crossed to him and laid her hand on his wrist. "If I can talk to him first, perhaps I can make him understand. Convince him to leave before any harm is done."

"He'll have seen my shuttle." Kylo Ren intertwined her fingers with his. "How will you explain that?"

"I'll say that it was a scout, sent down by one the ships circling above. The pilot came after me, but I got the best of him with my light saber, then chucked his body into the ocean."

Kylo Ren's dark eyebrows lifted. "I imagine he might very well believe that," he said, looking her over. "As I would."

"I'm known to be quite capable of taking care of myself," Rey replied, offering him a slight smile.

"Indeed." He caressed her palm before sliding away his fingers. "Go on, then. Go meet with your flyboy."

"He's not mine," Rey said, cursing the heat that had risen to flush her cheeks. "Just a compatriot in the Alliance."

"Really Rey, you think you can hide your thoughts from me? Especially when they're so…volatile? " Kylo Ren turned away and strode over to the pile of books scattered across the floor.

Rey cleared her throat before daring to reply. "It means nothing, really."

He glanced up at her as he piled the books in his arms, his dark eyes glittering. "It had better not."

"Spare me your jealousy," Rey said, a little more sharply than she'd intended. "We can't indulge in such emotions now, not when our lives, as well as the lives of many others, are at stake."

Kylo Ren muttered something under his breath as he carried the books, topped with the blaster, over to the bed. "Go. I'll pack all this up so we are ready to leave as soon as possible. In the meantime, placate your friend." He shot her a fierce glance over his shoulder. "But be sure to tell him to get the hell off this planet immediately. That is, if he knows what's good for him."

Rey opened her mouth in a retort, but snapped it shut again as she realized that she couldn't be certain that Poe Dameron actually _did_ know what was good for him.

Or her.

"I really only need the books and my blaster. Just toss them into that duffle that holds my clothes," she called out as she left the cave.

Making her way down the path toward the beach, Rey bit back a burst of laughter. The Supreme Leader of the First Order was packing her bags. How insane was that?

But no, she couldn't allow herself to make light of the situation. She had to gather her thoughts and present the proper face to Poe. She had to somehow convince him to leave without her. Allow him to believe she was preparing to leave on her own. All the while keeping two hot-headed, dark-haired, dangerous, men apart.

 _Both of whom had kissed her…_

As the fingers of her right hand curled about the butt of her light saber, Rey pressed the fingers of her left hand against her mouth. She could still recall Poe's kiss, but now this recollection felt like nothing more than the flutter of insect wings against her lips.

It was the other's kisses she couldn't forget—burning like fire, sealing her lips forever under his. She shivered, knowing that unless she and Kylo Ren could somehow, someday, achieve some sort of harmony of souls, she would never again kiss anyone.

She would never know passion, unless it was with him.

Rey squared her shoulders and quickened her pace. But if that was not to be, she would survive. She would always survive.

 _And never alone_ , chimed a chorus of voices in her head. Yes, she'd always have the sprits of the Jedi—those wielders of light who'd existed throughout the galaxy. Passing down their knowledge and power in a sometimes thin, but unbroken, line.

Until now. But no, she would not fail them. And, Force willing, ultimately neither would Ben Solo.


	17. Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Rey spotted Poe's ship as soon as she rounded the final corner of the path, right above the beach.

It wasn't much bigger than the shuttle, but larger than the fighter he'd left for her. Large enough to allow for the use of a hyper drive, she suspected.

How had he gotten that craft past the First Order ships that were undoubtedly still hovering above the planet? Rey picked her way over a few rocks before her boots hit the sand.

Poe emerged from the shuttle, blaster at the ready. But he dropped his arm as soon as he spied Rey. He jogged across the beach to meet her.

"Rey," he said, leaning in to kiss her.

She turned her face so that his lips landed on her cheek. "Poe, what are you doing here?"

"Rescuing you, apparently." He tilted his head and studied her for a moment. "Where's the pilot?" he asked, motioning toward the shuttle.

Rey spouted her carefully prepared lie. As Kylo Ren had suspected, Poe didn't find such actions implausible.

"But how did you ever fly past those First Order ships without them noticing you?" Rey asked, after he linked arms with her. They walked toward the cover offered by a grove of frond trees.

He gave her a cocky smile. "Guess I'm just that good,"

Rey shook her head as she gazed up into his handsome face. "You shouldn't have come. I imagine Leia Organa will be quite angry with you. Again."

"No, strangely, it was she who sent me."

"What?" Rey pulled away from him and took two stumbling steps backwards. "Why?"

"She had some sort of premonition or something. Force stuff, I guess. Anyway, she sent me here, along with a message, apparently." Poe put his fingers between his lips and whistled.

Immediately a BB droid rolled from his ship and headed straight for their hideout under the trees.

"BB-8!" Rey knelt down and patted the droid as soon as it came to a stop. "So good to see you again, old friend."

The droid chirped and beeped its response.

"A message?" Rey's brow wrinkled as she stared at the droid. "From whom?"

"The General, I expect," Poe said. "It came in just as we landed. I don't know why. All I know is that General Organa had BB-8 rigged to pick up some sort of scrambled data she said she might send. Apparently the droid can decode it." He shrugged. "I've no idea what it's all about. Haven't even had time to view it yet."

BB-8 chirped loudly, then a beam of light shot out from one of his apertures.

A holographic message was displayed clearly against the dark stones that backed the grove of trees. It showed Leia Organa, sitting behind her desk.

Rey instinctively clutched Poe's arm as Leia's voice crackled and cleared. _Was this bad news? Had more of the fleet been destroyed?_

 _Or worse, much worse, was Finn dead?_

"Rey," Leia said, "listen carefully. I have been given a message that I must pass along to you." The hologram smiled gently. "Never fear—your friends are safe. But my brother"—Leia cleared her throat—"the spirit of my brother came to me last night, in a dream."

"Ah, it _is_ some strange Force stuff," Poe said, but fell silent when Rey cast him a sharp look.

"He told me to study your files," the hologram continued. "Specifically, the report you made about the death of Supreme Leader Snoke. So I did. And I realized that something Snoke said, something that Luke told me to examine carefully, was actually a message for you. Oh, like my brother told me, I expect that Snoke was not aware of the significance of his remarks. Not really. But when I opened my mind to the Force, I was."

"I don't understand." Rey was so bemused that she allowed Poe to slip his arm around her waist and draw her close to his side.

"Do you recall what he said, Rey? There, in the presence of my…of Kylo Ren and you? _Darkness rises, and light to meet it._ Remember?"

"Yes." Rey barely breathed the word. "I remember."

"It sounds like a typical platitude about the Force, but listen carefully, Rey. Hear the words that are _not_ there."

"What's all this?" Poe's face was a mask of confusion.

"The words that are missing, Rey. Think about them," said Leia Organa's hologram. "No mention of fighting, or battles, or any type of struggle. The light rises, but not to destroy. Not to defeat anything, Rey. It simply rises to _meet_ the dark." Leia Organa's dark eyes, similar in many ways to those of her son, gazed directly into Rey's astonished face, as if she could see her. "Do you understand this, Rey? I hope to all the stars that you do."

"Yes." Rey straightened and pulled free of Poe's embrace. "Yes, I understand."

"If you truly comprehend the meaning of this, you will know what to do. For him, for you, for all of us." Leia bowed her head for a moment, then looked up with a warm smile. "Go then, Rey. Let it be that dark and light meet. Like old friends, like family. Like coming home. And may the Force be with you."

The holographic image faded, BB-8 chirped again, and Poe turned to Rey, his eyes very wide.

"You understood that?"

"Yes, yes, I think so." Rey brushed away the tears that were sliding, unbidden, down her cheeks. "Listen, there is something I must tell you. I beg you, listen to all I have to say before your respond. Please, until you've heard me out, take no rash actions. Will you promise me that?"

"I suppose." Poe wiped at a tear that trembled from her jaw with his thumb, then took her chin in his hand. "But what exactly am I promising, Rey?"

"First of all, to _not_ kill Kylo Ren," she replied.


	18. Chapter 18

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

"You must allow me to go on ahead," Rey said, after she'd explained everything to Poe. "I'll have to prepare him…"

"So he doesn't automatically use a Force-choke to kill me?" Poe grimaced. "This should be fun."

"It isn't the best of situations, but I trust that you both…" Rey sucked in a deep breath and considered her next words. "I hope, anyway, that you will be able to deal with things without any violence. Just think of it as some sort of truce."

"I'm thinking of it as some sort of hell, but I'll do my best." Poe said, caressing the handle of his blaster.

Rey eyed him with concern. She could sense his need for action, and perhaps his desire for glory, fighting against her request for a peaceful confrontation. Could she trust him?

 _Can you trust Kylo Ren?_ asked a voice in her head.

Well, maybe not entirely. Not when he faced off with a decorated Alliance pilot, who'd probably mocked him as often as he had General Hux. Who also had more than a friendly interest in the one woman that Kylo Ren desired.

Rey frowned and drummed her fingers against her light saber. She had to calm down and clear her mind. She needed to approach this like piloting a ship in battle. _Although,_ she admitted ruefully, _this was probably going to be even more difficult than navigating the Falcon through the salt crystal caves on Crait._

When they within a few steps of the cave, Rey held up her hand to stop Poe and BB-8 in their tracks. "Wait here," she said. "I'll call for you when the time is right."

"Go ahead and power down. Might be here a while," Poe told the droid.

Rey shot him an exasperated look, but couldn't prevent a little smile twitching her lips when Poe just winked in response.

Stepping into the cave, Rey came face-to-face with Kylo Ren. Standing like a soldier at attention, his cape swept back over his shoulders, he gazed down at her with an ironic smile.

"Might as well ask him to come in," he said. "It's not like I can't sense his every thought anyway."

Rey's cheeks flushed—with embarrassment or anger, or both, she couldn't quite tell.

"I asked Poe to take no hasty actions. I ask you the same," she said, meeting Kylo Ren's smoldering gaze without flinching.

"For the sake of your bright eyes?" he asked, his tone much lighter than the darkness shadowing his face.

"For the good of the galaxy," Rey replied firmly. "For the sake of your escape plan. For us."

Kylo Ren's gaze softened. "So, there's still an _us_?"

Rey brushed his clenched fist with her fingertips." Of course. That will never change." She took a deep breath. "Especially now. After the message Poe brought me from General…" She lifted her chin defiantly. "From your mother."

"Message?" Kylo Ren's dark eyes narrowed. "What message?"

"You should hear it for yourself." Rey dashed over to the cave entrance and called for Poe and BB-8.

The droid rolled into the cave in a flurry of beeps and chirps. Poe Dameron entered more quietly, although the expression on his face spoke volumes.

"Solo," he said. "What a strange coincidence."

If Kylo Ren objected to Poe's use of his family name, he didn't betray it by so much as the flicker of an eyelash. "There are very few coincidences where the Force is concerned, Poe Dameron. I'm assuming this is not one of those few."

"You believe I was guided here then? By your Force?" Poe's sardonic grin would have intimidated any other, less confident, man.

Kylo Ren's lips curled into a sneer. "Not you, precisely. But you did convey a droid to this location. Who apparently carries a message I need to hear."

Rey blinked rapidly as her gaze flitted from one dark-haired, dark-eyed man to the other. Although they didn't actually resemble one another, they were certainly twins in their attitudes.

 _Like two wild creatures, circling and baring their teeth before an attack_ , Rey thought. Could she really keep them from killing each other? Rey slid between them. "Ben, you need to view the holographic message before we discuss anything else. Poe, can you ask BB-8 to replay it?"

"Of course." Poe turned and motioned for the droid to roll forward.

While Poe was momentarily occupied, Kylo Ren reached out and pulled Rey to him, wrapping his arms around her so that the back of her head was pressed against his chest.

 _Stop it._ Rey dug her fingernails into his upper thighs.

Kylo Ren just tightened his grip. _So, he kissed you? And it's easy enough to sense that he'd like to do so again, given any opportunity._

Rey pressed her foot down onto the arch of one of his boots. _Don't be a child._

Kylo Ren's loud string of oaths caused Poe to spin around.

"Are you embracing Rey?' Poe flashed that familiar, cocky, grin. "Or holding her hostage?"

Rey's hand instinctively flew out to counter Kylo Ren's reach for his light saber. "Enough," she said, infusing her tone with a tiny shred of the Force. "Ben, please release me. Poe, please stand back, and BB-8—please, for all our sakes, play that message. Now."


	19. Chapter 19

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Rey carefully studied Kylo Ren's face as the message played. Although he contained his reactions behind a frozen mask of disinterest, she could feel the furious rampage of emotions trampling his inner composure. Of course, seeing his mother again, after so long… Even without the implications of her message, that had to be a tremendous strain.

 _I'm here._ Rey repeated the thought over and over. _I'm still here._ And _,_ having stayed close beside him even after he'd released his earlier hold on her, Rey surreptitiously slid her hand into his while Poe's attention was focused on the hologram.

"Interesting," was all Kylo Ren said when the last image flickered and faded. But his grip on Rey's hand tightened to the point where she feared he would break all her fingers.

 _I know it's overwhelming, but a little less force, perhaps…_ She suggested, and immediately felt his grip loosen.

"So you two get the point of this, I take it?" Poe shrugged his shoulders. "I confess I'm still lost. But I'm not tangled up in the Force, so I guess that's the difference."

"A rather big difference," Kylo Ren said, in an offhand tone that may have fooled Poe, but did nothing to derail Rey's concerns.

"It speaks of the Force as something different than what we've been taught." Rey glanced at Kylo Ren once before focusing on Poe. "Not a dichotomy, you see, with dark and light being opposite forces that must battle for supremacy. But rather a power that can incorporate both—a union between the darkness and the light that doesn't require either of them to be destroyed."

"A balance," Kylo Ren said thoughtfully.

As if speaking to himself.

"Yes, a balance." Rey shot Kylo Ren another quick glance before she looked back at Poe. "Does that, at least, make sense to you?"

"Yeah, I guess it does." Poe, obviously lost in thought, absently rubbed at his chin. "It does seem like it makes more sense than that all or nothing thinking. I mean, none of us are entirely good or absolutely bad, and that doesn't mean we shouldn't exist. I suppose I can see how that could work with the Force too."

"Exactly," Rey said, giving him a warm smile.

Poe moved closer. "So, I guess the question is—what does this mean for any actions we need to take now?"

"It means we follow my initial plan," Kylo Ren said, stroking Rey's fingers before releasing her hand. "And you get off this planet as soon as possible. Hux will be rendezvousing with his lead ship any time now. You should be long gone before he arrives."

Poe took a fighter's stance, bouncing off his heels, but with his arms crossed over his chest. "And what happens to Rey in this little plan of yours? Does she just trade one possible prison for another?"

"No. Rey has a choice, of course. She can leave with you—although if we're speaking honestly, I suspect you're as likely to be captured by Hux's trooops as not—or she can leave with me. In the fighter you so gallantly provided." Kylo Ren arched his dark brows over his brilliant eyes. "Thank you for that, by the way. Most convenient."

As Poe studied the two of them for several moments, Rey saw something flicker in his eyes. Something like pain, replaced with resignation. He exhaled loudly then dropped his arms to his sides, his fingers curled inward but not clenched. "I could offer you cover," he said at last. "Keep any First Order ships off your tail."

Rey heard Kylo Ren's sharp intake of breath. He'd seen it too, or sensed it—Poe's sudden realization of the truth. His acknowledgement that, no matter what happened, Rey was lost to him forever.

"That would be helpful. Thank you," said Han and Leia's son, in a voice that belonged only to him.

Even without benefit of the Force, Poe obviously detected the difference. He shot Rey a questioning look.

She gave him an almost imperceptible nod. _Yes,_ she pushed the thought into Poe's mind, although she was unsure if he could hear it. _Yes, this is Ben Solo. He still exists. Tell Leia Organa that, if you tell her nothing else._

BB-8 beeped once, then began chirping and buzzing incessantly.

"Wait a minute, slow down," Poe said, squatting down before the little droid. "What is it?"

Kylo Ren strode over the entrance of the cave. "They know you're down here." He turned on Poe, his eyes flashing. "They've tracked you. And now us. We can't wait for Hux or any quiet escape now." He looked beyond Poe to meet Rey's terrified, but determined, gaze. "We're going to have to fight our way out of here."


	20. Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

Poe's hand slid to the butt of his blaster. "I have a weapon. If I can cut my way through any boots on the ground, and somehow make it to my ship …"

Rey ran to her bed and grabbed up her own blaster. She tossed it at Poe, who caught it with one hand. "Now you have two."

"But what about you?" Poe slid the weapon into the right side of his holster.

The memory of Snoke's throne chamber, and the guards she and Kylo Ren had defeated there, flashed through Rey's mind. "I have my light saber, and Ben has his. We can manage."

Kylo Ren strode over and stood before Poe. He was the taller of the two, but the other man didn't appear intimidated by this advantage.

 _Not at all_ , Rey thought. She had to give Poe credit—she'd seen many others wilt under Kylo Ren's imperious gaze. But not Poe Dameron.

"Your ship? What about the others? Don't try to tell me that my mother sent you out alone. She'd never do anything that foolish."

Poe raised his chin defiantly as he looked the man clad in black up and down. "There's a battle cruiser, carrying a contingent of fighters, just a jump away. The General ordered them to hold off until I sent a coded signal."

"And if you do, if you can reach the proper altitude to send your signal, they will jump in?"

"Immediately, and ready for battle," Poe said.

"Then we must make sure you reach your ship." Kylo Ren turned from him and motioned for Rey. "Are you ready for a another fight, my dear?"

"Always," Rey replied, following his lead by sliding her light saber free of her sash.

Poe shook his head. "I can provide plenty of firepower as well, but once I take off, it will only be the two of you. Against how many?"

Kylo Ren closed his eyes briefly. "At the moment, ten."

"Bad odds," Poe observed, checking over his blaster.

"For them," said Kylo Ren.

Rey pressed her light saber to her breast. "Whatever happens, Poe, keep going. If our fighters can take out some of General Hux's ships, it will be worth it."

"Only two ships." Kylo Ren glanced down at her before looking back at Poe. "And unfortunately, Hux has not yet returned. However, it's still a good plan. If the Alliance can destroy the First Order cruisers, I can get Rey off this planet. It's the only way out now."

Poe raised his eyebrows. "In the fighter? That won't get you very far."

"We've made other arrangements." Rey felt Kylo Ren's approval over her choice of pronouns wash over her.

"All right then." Poe glanced toward the entrance of the cave. "We have the higher ground, at least."

"And your droid," Kylo Ren said. "Send it out ahead."

Poe shifted a wicked-looking knife from a sheath inside one boot to his weapons belt. "He can't transmit to us. No comms on our end."

"Not necessary. We can still pick up his messages." Kylo Ren touched Rey's arm. "You know this droid fairly well, I think?"

She nodded.

"Then just connect, using everything you know. Idiosyncrasies you can associate with it. Memories you share. Think you can do that?"

Rey focused on BB-8. After only a moment, a flood of data streamed into her mind. "He says he will send me whatever I need," she said, glancing up to meet Kylo Ren's approving gaze.

He leaned in, and she thought for a moment that he might kiss her again. _For luck,_ she thought. _Or because it might be the last time._ But he simply pressed his fingers against her cheek.

"Follow my lead," he said, dropping his hand to pull on his gloves.

Rey arched her eyebrows over her bright brown eyes. "Your lead? Have you forgotten that I've bested you in a saber fight, at least once?"

Kylo Ren frowned, but Rey thought she spied the hint of a smile in his eyes. "I have not forgotten." He tapped her lips with two gloved fingers. "It's why I'm not worried. I know you can hold your own against any First Order soldiers."

"Well, I suppose it's now or never. We should try to get a jump on them," Poe said, motioning toward the path outside the cave. "BB-8, go on ahead, but stay out of sight. Send any intel to Rey."

The little droid beeped and chirped its agreement and rolled out of the cave.

"I'll follow BB-8, but not too closely. If I can remain unseen until we reach the beach…"

"You can hit them with sniper fire from above. Solid plan." Kylo Ren removed his cape and tossed it across the bed. "Rey and I will swing around from another direction. I believe there's a lower path that leads directly onto the beach."

"Yes, there is," said Rey, who had no idea how he knew that little detail about the island.

Kylo Ren fixed his intense gaze on Poe. "If you can take down a few of our visitors from above, then Rey and I can leap in and keep the others suitably occupied while you make your way to your ship."

Poe inclined his head in acknowledgement.

 _Almost like a salute_ , Rey thought. "May the Force be with you," she called out to the pilot as Poe left the cave.

"And you," he called back before he disappeared.

"Now we must make for that other path," Rey said, sprinting for the opening.

Kylo Ren grabbed her arm and forced her to halt right inside the cave entrance. "Rey," he said, looking down at her with a troubled expression. "This could prove very dangerous. I believe we can prevail, but only if we work together, as we did in Snoke's chamber. Trust your instincts, as you did then. And"—he leaned down and brushed her lips lightly with his—"trust me."

"I will," Rey said. "But you must trust me as well. Trust in my skill, and my strength. Don't try to protect me, Ben. We will fight best if we fight as one."

He gently tapped the hilt of his light saber against hers. "One mind, one mission."

"And—even if you don't believe in such things—one heart," Rey said, touching his chest before sliding past him and heading for the lower path.


	21. Chapter 21

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Rey heard blaster fire before she could see anything. It propelled her swiftly through the shrubs that invaded the narrow path .

"Poe," she said, her voice cracking.

"From the direction of the shots, he's taking them out, not the other way around," Kylo Ren barred her way with his extended arm. "Wait. Two more strides and we'll break through this undergrowth. You must be immediately prepared to fight when we step onto the beach."

Rey looked up into his face—composed now, impassive as the mask he had once worn. He seemed as distant as a star, all his attention turned inward.

 _To draw upon the Dark Side of the Force,_ she thought, _just as I must draw upon the Light._ She took a deep breath and lifted her light saber, readying herself for action. _Focus, focus. Think only of the task. One movement leading to the other, like a dance._

A dance of death.

Rey met Kylo Ren's burning gaze and nodded her head. "Ready," she said.

"We go then. To whatever end," he replied.

"To a new beginning," Rey said, before turning away and stepping onto the beach beside him.

Poe had taken out several of the First Order soldiers, but a quick scan showed that many more remained. Some were using a larger craft as a barrier against Poe's assault, while others had taken cover behind a second, smaller, First Order fighter.

Rey frowned. _More than ten. Another ship landed._

 _I see that,_ Kylo Ren replied, his silent words ringing clearly in her mind.

Spying Kylo Ren and Rey, several of the soldiers leapt out from behind the larger First Order ship and stormed forward. As they ran, blasters blazing, an explosion rocked the beach behind them.

Rey, dodging blaster fire with a speed and agility only matched by the elegant moves of her partner, used a tiny corner of her mind to process the fact that Poe must have hit the fighter's power core with a well-placed shot. So, a few more soldiers down, and one of their ships gone up in flames.

 _Good job, Poe_ , she thought, but then refocused, concentrating on the dangers at hand.

Leap, strike, parry. As one of the soldiers fired directly at her chest, Rey sensed Kylo Ren kneel beside her, hand open. She stepped onto his palm and used the upward swing of his arm to fly up and over the soldier. Swinging around in mid-air, she thrust her light saber through him before she flipped and hit the ground in a crouch.

As the man toppled forward, Kylo Ren somersaulted over his body, landing on his feet in time to strike down another approaching soldier.

Blaster fire from above the beach confirmed that Poe was still in the fray. Rey, wielding her light saber with a terrible grace, struck down another soldier before she spied BB-8 rolling across the beach. Weaving and bobbing to dodge blaster fire, the little droid was headed straight for Poe's ship.

 _To fire up the engines,_ she thought. _To have it ready for takeoff as soon as Poe reaches the cockpit._

As Kylo Ren swung his light saber to cut away another soldier's blaster, along with the soldier's arm, he spun Rey around with his other hand, pulling her out of range of an oncoming blast.

He shot her a quick glance. _Cover the droid, I can handle the rest._

BB-8 had almost reached Poe's ship, but one First Order soldier was hot on his tail, his blaster pointed at the droid. Rey ran, faster than even she'd thought possible, and reached the soldier before he could take proper aim to fire. As her light saber pierced his heart, she heard another explosion and glanced up to see the larger First Order ship also go up in flames.

Score another hit for Poe Dameron.

The soldiers, those that survived, scattered in all directions like insects fleeing a smashed anthill. Several dashed into the grove of frond trees the separated the beach from the rest of the island.

Kylo Ren, who had indeed taken care of the last of the soldiers who'd led the attack against him and Rey, swiftly reached Rey's side. _They'll regroup. And two of them carried off some sort of small blast cannon. It's something that takes a little time to set up, but when it is ready to deploy…_

 _It could take out Poe's ship?_

 _Yes, and us. But we have a little time. Dameron needs to get to his ship now, and off the planet. He must send that signal._ Kylo Ren's dark eyes locked with hers. _Can you reach him? He's not Force-sensitive, but he is connected to you in some way…_

 _I can try._ Rey closed her eyes for a moment, relying on Kylo Ren to keep watch on the soldiers scattered in the trees. _Poe,_ she thought, _make a run for it now._ _We'll cover you, if needed._

Kylo Ren grabbed her arm. _Now we move back. If Dameron needs help, we can jump in again, but otherwise, conserve your energy._

Rey jogged to keep pace with his longer strides, heading for the edge of the lower path.

As she turned back to the beach, she saw Poe running for his ship. Sporadic blaster fire hit the ground around him. Poe cleverly took advantage of the plumes of sand raised by these blasts, darting in and out of them to hide his progress.

"Seems he can manage on his own." The admiration in Kylo Ren's voice took Rey by surprise.

Meeting his gaze, she couldn't prevent a tiny upward twitch of her lips. "You must admit he is rather clever."

"Rather too much, for my liking," Kylo Ren said, with a question in his dark eyes.

 _Yes, I care for him,_ she replied, without speaking. _As I do Finn. Deeply. But that should cause you no concern. One can care for many beings in this universe, you know. Hearts aren't limited, Ben. Hearts are like the Force. Infinite."_

 _Are they? I've not experienced that. But I can believe.. I think perhaps yours is._ Kylo Ren looked up and over her head. _He's reached the ship safely._ _Now if he can just get away before they get that cannon readied…_

BB-8, that clever droid, _had_ started the engines. As soon as the hatch slammed shut, Poe's ship circled the beach. Blaster fire erupted from the trees, but the shots were wild and ricocheted harmlessly off the hull.

The roar of engines filled the air as Poe's ship lifted up and blasted off into the clear sky.

Rey clasped her hands together and pressed them to her breast. "Thank the Force, now he can give the signal and bring the Alliance cruiser with its fighters, to take out those First Order ships circling above."

"Hopefully," said Kylo Ren. "But we must prepare for another fight. Those soldiers in the trees will soon have their cannon, which despite its power, is quite portable. We could flee and try to hide, but they would follow."

"To what end? They've lost their ships. They are trapped here unless their forces prevail, which is not likely, given the skill of the Alliance fighters."

Kylo Ren shook his head. "That won't matter. I know them. I have commanded their kind and understand how they think. They will not hesitate to turn the cannon on us, even if Hux would prefer our capture."

"They'd defy his orders?"

Kylo Ren placed his hand over hers and pressed her clasped hands hard against her breast, forcing her to look at him. "They've lost two ships. They've been bested by three people wielding nothing more than a blaster and two light sabers. When Hux finds out, they are dead already." His dark eyes glinted with a cold fire. "So yes, they will defy him. They are doomed, and they know it. They are going down, one way or the other. And have no doubts, my intrepid little Jedi— they will make certain that we go down with them."


	22. Chapter 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Rey's chest rose and fell under his fingers. "The fighter—if only we could…" She unclasped her hands, breaking his hold. "But it's stashed in a cave on the other side of those trees. We'd have to fight through all the soldiers, and their cannon, to reach it."

"If they follow us, if they see it, they'll destroy the ship before we could get close enough for it to matter. Better to leave it hidden for later. Assuming there is a later." Kylo Ren tapped his light saber hilt against one of his gloved hands.

"So what then? We fight them off, just the two of us?"

"If necessary. But let them come to us. If we can hold out long enough, perhaps your friends may come to our aid. Dameron knows we're still down here. He may not care about me"— Kylo Ren shrugged—"but something tells me that, as long as he still breathes, he will come back for you."

Rey stared at the screen of trees that hid the soldiers. "How many are left?"

"Think. You should be able to sense it."

Rey made a face. _At your command, Supreme Leader,_ she thought, tinging the message with more than a trace of sarcasm.

But she did use her connection to the Force to sense the presence of the soldiers. "Twelve."

"Six each. Sounds fair." As if, perhaps, offering a tiny apology for his pervious demand, Kylo Ren offered her a tight-lipped smile.

"But there's the cannon."

"Yes, there's that."

"How can we take it out? " Rey looked up into Kylo Ren's pensive face. "I know you can manipulate matter from a distance. Control things, like with a choke hold. Can you do that to them? Or even blow that cannon thing into the sea?"

He met her inquiring gaze with a lift of his eyebrows. "The soldiers? Yes, if I'm close enough. The weapon…" His dark eyes glinted like ebony as he studied her face. "That would take something more."

"The two of us, working together…" Rey said, following his unspoken thought.

"Perhaps. But, sabers up—attackers approaching from the island side."

"Four," Rey said, earning a brilliant smile from Kylo Ren before they sprang into action.

And back into the unrehearsed choreography of their deadly dance. Rey quickly dispatched one of the soldiers but, miscalculating ever so slightly, didn't leap far enough aside as his body fell. His thrashing leg caught her behind the knee, knocking her to the sand, and her light saber bounced from her hand and rolled a few inches beyond her reach.

Before she could call the weapon back, another soldier grabbed her under the armpits and yanked her to her feet.

"Drop your weapon or she dies," he yelled at Kylo Ren who, back to them, struck down the other two soldiers with alternating slices of his light saber.

He wheeled around, his impassive expression giving way to fury. Lifting the arm not wielding his light saber, Kylo Ren opened his fingers and then closed them tightly against his gloved palm.

The soldier immediately released Rey, his own fingers clawing at his neck. As Rey flicked her wrist, calling her light saber back to her hand, Kylo Ren raised his arm. The soldier flew up in the air, his boots dangling above the beach.

His face purpling, the soldier gurgled helplessly.

"Free him, Ben," Rey said. "I'm fine now."

"As you wish." Kylo Ren opened his hand and dropped his arm to his side, sending the soldier crashing to the sand. He strode over and stared down at the gasping man for a moment.

"No one touches her," he said, as the blade of his light saber flamed into existence.

He drove the fiery blade into the soldier's chest before turning back to Rey. "And now there are eight. Better odds."

She sucked in a deep breath as she met his glittering gaze. She had once called him a monster and he had replied without hesitation—"Yes, I am."

A monster, or some dark avenging angel. Any yet, also a man.

"Ben," she said, as if that name could call him back from the brink.

 _But he's already plunged over,_ Rey thought, _fallen and sunk deep into the darkness. How can you love such a man?_

 _With great difficulty._ Rey's lips twisted into a wry smile as her heart answered her mind.

"Behind you," Kylo Ren said, gripping her arm and spinning her around to face the far swath of trees.

Something moved in the underbrush, and light glinted off a cylindrical object.

The barrel of the cannon.

Keeping her facing the weapon, Kylo Ren pulled Rey back against his body, so close that even a breath of wind couldn't pass between them. As she lifted her light saber, holding it with both hands, he did the same, his reach stretching beyond hers. Like layers of flame, the blade of her saber flared just above his.

Rey pressed the back of her head against Kylo Ren's chest. _Shall we stand against them, then? Shall you draw on the Dark Side and I the Light and allow them to conjoin? Meld together those Forces even if it tears us apart? Somehow, in some way, find the balance. Shall we attempt this, you and I?"_

 _Yes. Even if we die trying._ His words pierced the fear clouding her mind, instantly bringing a calm that steadied her hands.

"The dark rises, and light to meet it," he said aloud. "And now, Rey—bright mirror to my darkness—here on this unremarkable beach, on this unimportant planet, now we find out if my mother was right."


	23. Chapter 23

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

She takes one breath, he takes the next.

As they fused their power, pulse matching pulse, heartbeat mirroring heartbeat, Rey felt the light rising in her like a great wave—lace-edge of foam glittering while the translucent jade brightness curved over the dark heart of the sea. Light embraced the darkness.

And darkness reached back, wrapping itself about and within the light, just as dark matter infused its energy across the universe.

They stood on the beach and yet, elsewhere as well. Nowhere.

Everywhere.

 _The Force is not a thing to grasp and hold._ Kylo Ren's unspoken words, suffused with wonder, resonated throughout Rey's body. _It can never be mastered._

 _Only allowed to flow through us._ Rey leaned back against him, balanced between his arms. Energy crackled and roared through her veins, as if replacing her blood. A clear, pure, energy that was neither light nor dark.

That simply was.

 _I see it now. Nothing is solid, or set_ , she told him—Kylo Ren and Ben Solo. Because the two were not opposites, Rey realized. They were, and always had been, one.

 _Yes, I sense the spaces between everything,_ he responded. _I know you must see it, feel it, as I do—the universes that exist between one atom and the next?_

 _I see it. I feel it. I know._ Rey sensed his brilliant mind, his indomitable will, the depth of his passion intertwined with hers. All one.

The darkness had risen…

And light to meet it.

On the beach only a microsecond had passed. As Rey matched the trajectory of Kylo Ren's light saber with her own, she saw the barrel of the cannon and did not see it. It was nothing, she realized. It was all one with the grains of sand beneath her feet, or the fronds fluttering on the trees. It was no weapon, it was just bits of matter, arranged into a particular pattern.

 _And can be as easily rearranged._ Kylo Ren bent his head, until his lips were at Rey's ear. _We can do that. Can you sense it?_

 _Yes,_ she breathed. _Yes._

Kylo Ren lifted his light saber, ever so slightly, until its blade melded with that of Rey's. The lights blazed purple, then turned white.

Rey closed her eyes, allowing a pure surge of energy to flow from Kylo Ren's chest straight through her body, filling her own breast with a pulsating orb of light. She sensed all that concentrated power flowing through him as well, racing down both their arms and into their fingertips. Pouring into their light sabers.

 _The cannon, Rey._ Kylo Ren's voice swept through her, its dark depths one with the light inside her. _Take it apart._


	24. Chapter 24

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

So bright the sun was obliterated in its glow, a torrent of energy roared across the beach.

In the breath between the power flowing from her body and the lowering of her light saber, Rey experienced a vision of everything flying apart—a universe of molecules and atoms shifting like pieces of colored glass in a kaleidoscope, spinning like stars in a spiral galaxy.

In the next breath, Kylo Ren swung Rey around until her face was buried in the folds of his tunic. But even with her faced covered and her eyes closed, she sensed the light blazing up around them like a star gone nova.

Yet they still stood. Strong. Safe. Wrapped in the protection of the Force that flowed through their bodies, they were shielded from the effects of their combined powers by the very energy that they had unleashed.

The light faded, and Rey lifted her head.

"What did we do?" she asked, placing her hands on Kylo Ren's shoulders and looking up at him.

His face was white as paper, the scar she'd given him standing out like a brand. "We took it apart, Rey. All of it."

She turned slowly, stepping forward, finally moving away from his arms.

And immediately sank to her knees.

Before her, a glittering path stretched from where they stood to the point where the blast had hit its target. The bolt of energy, flying across the beach, not even touching the sand, had fused it into glass.

At the other end was…a slice of nothing.

A hole had been cut through the grove of trees, exactly at the point where Rey had spied the barrel of the cannon. A clean, sharp, slice removed with surgical precision, leaving only a view of sky and that glittering floor of glass in its wake.

Kylo Ren knelt beside her and placed one hand on her shoulder. "I knew we could do something. I did not know we could do that. I swear, Rey, I did not know."

"We took it apart," she replied, her voice shaking almost as hard as the hands she clasped before her. "It all came apart."

"We released it from its tethers," Kylo Ren said. "From the forces that held it all together. That's all."

"But look"—Rey threw out her hands—"Trees, cannon, soldiers. All gone."

Not burned, she thought, or blown to piece. Not even obliterated. No—merely reduced to the pure energy of their subatomic structure.

Merely that.

"This power. It is too great, Ben. In the wrong hands…It could become a terrible thing."

"Yes." He stood and helped her to her feet. "Which is why we must leave. Immediately. Before anyone discovers what we have done."

She gripped his arm and gazed up at him, her brown eyes very wide. "You do not want it, this power? It doesn't tempt you? It could make you something much greater than the Supreme Leader. It could make you, could make us…"

"Like gods." Kylo Ren cradled her face in his hands for a second before dropping his arms to his sides. "But no, Rey. No, I do not want that. Not anymore." Something flickered in his eyes, a brighter flame than she had ever seen before. "I want to understand more, and learn everything, and work with you to discover how to balance the light and dark. But I have seen something, just a glimpse, of what makes up the universe. Of what it all means. And I want to know more. I want that desperately. More than a title, or a command, or any power granted to me by others."

"I want that too," Rey said, tracing his scar with her fingertips. "But to learn all we need to know could be dangerous. Even deadly." She motioned with her head toward the blasted area of the beach.

"But discovery demands that risk. All great exploration does." Kylo Ren caught her hand as she pulled it back from his face. Clasping it tightly, he gave her a questioning look. "I can't believe you're truly afraid, Rey. You surely have an explorer's heart. I'm certain you'd be the first to race across any bridge, even if no one knew what lay on the other side."

Despite the concerns still racing around her mind, she was able to offer him a faint smile. "You know me well, Ben Solo."

He didn't even blink at her use of his full name. "I'm beginning to. I hope to have enough time to learn much more. Now, lead me to that stored fighter. We need to get out of here while we still can. If they're still engaged in battle, the First Order ships will see us as simply another Alliance fighter, and we can easily slip away."

"If they don't fire on us and score a hit before we can escape."

"I can handle that." Some of the old haughtiness had crept back into Kylo Ren's voice.

"I'm sure you think so." Rey gave his wrist a swift tap. "But I'm a pretty good pilot too. Maybe better than you. Perhaps I should be the one to fly the fighter."

Rey caught the little upward twitch of his lips as he turned aside. "We'll let the Force decide that." He sprinted off toward the path that led to the hills above the beach. "By whoever reaches the ship first," he called back over his shoulder.

Shouting curses she'd learned from the lowest riff-raff on Jakku, Rey chased after him.


	25. Chapter 25

**CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE**

By the time they reached the fighter, and maneuvered it out of the cave and onto the beach beyond the blasted portion of the tree grove, Rey was exhausted. But she put on a brave face, refusing to allow Kylo Ren to see how drained she felt.

 _You think he really can't sense it?_ Her inner voice chided her. Of course he would know, tuned into her body as he was. But he didn't make any mention of it, or baby her, for which she was grateful.

Rey braced her arms and legs against the open hatch of the fighter, balancing there to keep an eye on the beach and the sky. Kylo Ren sat in the pilot's seat, testing the controls. Naturally, with the benefit of his longer strides, he'd reached the fighter first. Rey knew she could, at times, best him in a light saber battle, but she couldn't outrun him.

Secretly, she was glad that he would be the one to fly the fighter. Although she trusted her own talents as a pilot, she was afraid her exhaustion might blunt her finer skills.

"Seems to be in good order," Kylo Ren said.

Rey glanced over at him. "I have been firing it up from time to time."

He gave her an approving look. "Of course. I'd expect no less. Now, all we need is to calculate the best trajectory…"

His words were drowned out by the roar of another set of engines. A larger ship, breaking through the scattering of clouds dotting the clear sky. Coming in for a landing.

"It's Poe!" Rey shouted, leaping out of the fighter.

When the ship coasted to a stop, Rey was already halfway across the beach, Kylo Ren on her heels.

 _Rey!_ He yelled in her mind. _Don't be foolish. We need to get out of here before he sees…_

"Victory!" Poe called out, as he stepped out of the open hatch and spied Rey and Kylo Ren. "We routed the bastards. Destroyed one of the ships and sent the other one jumping back to wherever. Get it next time," he added, with a wink.

He sauntered down the gangplank but stopped short halfway. His mouth fell open as he stared at the blasted section of the beach. Shading his eyes, he looked from Rey and Kylo Ren to the ribbon of glass and the gaping emptiness where a grove of trees had stood. "What the…?" His brown eyes widened. "What'd you bring with you, Solo? Some new weapon?"

The excitement in his voice over this discovery made the hairs on Rey's arms stand on end. _He thinks it's something he can confiscate for the Alliance._

It's what she would've thought, not very long ago.

"Not exactly." Kylo Ren laid one hand over the hilt of his light saber.

"But the soldiers—how did you obliterate them so completely? And all those trees? Or did they have some weapon that backfired on them?"

 _We must tell him, Ben. We can trust him._

 _No, don't you see his eyes? He wants the weapon that can do that, Rey. Wants it more than glory. He cannot know._

 _He must. If only,_ she tempered her unspoken words with a gentler tone, _so he can tell your mother why._ Rey lifted her chin and met Kylo Ren's fierce gaze. _Why we can't return_.

She felt resignation wash away his defiance. _Very well. But then we must leave. Disappear. Understand?_

Rey simply nodded before turning back to face Poe as he descended the gangplank.

"They did have a weapon," Rey said quietly. "A cannon of some sort. We had taken down several of the soldiers, but they were going to fire that cannon at us and we…We took it out."

"With what?" Poe looked them both up and down, his questioning expression fading into confusion. "What could do a thing like that?"

"We can," said Rey, laying her fingers on Poe's arm. "Listen to me, Poe. Ben and I—we combined our powers in the Force to save ourselves. In that moment, fighting to survive, we simply allowed those powers to meld and create the energy that could…"

"Do that?" Incredulity lifted Poe's voice to another register. "Just the two of you? Nothing else?"

"We drew upon the Force," Kylo Ren said. "But yes. It was the power of the dark and the light, working as one. Channeled through us, and our light sabers. We did not realize," he added, sliding his arm around Rey's waist, "quite how powerful that would prove to be."

As Poe's gaze fixed upon Rey's face she read a conflicting sea of emotions in his eyes—amazement, admiration, pride, desire, and one more.

One she did not expect, despite a previous warning.

Fear.

Rey refused to look away, but she leaned in closer to Kylo Ren. "Poe, we must ask a favor. You must allow us to leave. Without handing us over to the Alliance. Without telling them what we have done here."

"I"—Poe wiped the sweat beading on his forehead with one hand "I can't do that."

"You must. We now know that we have to disappear for a while. Learn what all this means, and how to control our combined powers, before we can share any of this with anyone. Neither the Alliance nor the First Order can be allowed to capture us, Poe. It's too dangerous."

"But, Rey, this power, in the hands of the Alliance…" He shot a sharp look at Kylo Ren. "He could be brought to heel, for your sake. I'm not Force-sensitive, but even I can tell that."

"Don't be a fool," Kylo Ren snapped, the old fury rising in his expression. "Yes, I would do anything if it meant protecting Rey. Perhaps you could even force me to work for your rebel cause, using her as leverage. But she would not. Not to save herself, or me. I know this, and"—he looked down at Rey with an expression she'd never seen on his face before—"I am fine with that."

"So I'm supposed to let you fly off to someplace without alerting my superiors?"

"You admit you have some?" Kylo Ren asked, with a lift of his dark eyebrows. "But yes, although…" He glanced back a Rey. "You may tell my…You many tell General Organa. But only face-to-face. And alone."

Poe stared back at the blasted section of the island, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. "It goes against my better judgement, but for Rey's sake, I'll do it. But you can't take that fighter."

"Of course we can," Rey said. "There's a larger ship waiting to rendezvous with Ben…"

"You mean with Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader of the First Order. Which I doubt he is, anymore. At least, I doubt he will be, despite his power in the Force, once word gets back to Hux and the rest of the fleet." Poe looked them both over, shaking his head. "You really think a First Order ship will allow you to dock now? They'll blast you into space rubble before they do that."

"I know," Kylo Ren said. "But there's a possibility that I can pilot the fighter to another location where we can secure a larger ship…"

"Yeah, hell of a improbability is more like it. I know this stretch of space. Not much around, and certainly nowhere you'd find such a transport. I'm not risking Rey's life over your vanity, Solo." He held up one hand to silence Kylo Ren's retort. "Now look, I have an idea. Yeah, I have those from time to time, so don't give me any of that superior attitude." He pointed back over his shoulder. "I have a ship. The Eclipse, she's called. Large enough to have hyper drive."

"But, Poe, we can't take _your_ ship," Rey said.

"You damn well better. " Poe shot her a cocky grin. "Best idea I've had in ages, so listen up—you take my ship, and BB-8. He's got the comm codes, so if anyone in the Alliance questions your presence, which they shouldn't seeing as how they should accept the Eclipse as one of their own, but anyway if they do BB-8 will have you covered. Then once you're in position, you can jump to wherever the hell you want. I assume you can figure something out about that. A proper hiding place, I mean," he added, with a glance at Kylo Ren.

"I think I can manage."

"Right, so it's settled then. I'll just use that fighter of yours to rendezvous with one of the other Alliance ships. If I get any questions, I'm sure I can come up with a good story."

"I'm sure you can," Rey said, breaking away from Kylo Ren's hold and dashing up to Poe. "Thank you, dear friend." She kissed his cheek before stepping back. "That's a very great sacrifice. Especially giving up BB-8. You know we may not be able to return him. Not anytime soon, anyway."

Poe shrugged. "There are other droids. And you might need him. Not just on the ship, but also, if you ever felt inclined to use that special upgrade of his. You know, the one where you can receive messages directly from the General." He cast Kylo Ren a significant look over Rey's shoulder. "You can send them too, you know."

"Interesting," was all Kylo Ren had to say in response, but Rey sensed the tumult this statement stirred in his emotions.

"All right, well I guess this is goodbye." Standing directly in front of Kylo Ren, Poe leaned in and kissed Rey, quite thoroughly, on the mouth. "Don't forget me."

"I won't," she replied, her smile broadening as she sensed Kylo Ren fuming. "And you be sure to tell Finn that I won't forget him either. Or any of my friends in the Alliance. We'll meet again, one of these days. I swear."

"I know we will." Poe turned and walked a few paces off before turning back. "I was going to say, _May the Force Be With You_ , but I guess it already is. So I'll just say—see you soon." He waved and turned away again, trudging across the beach, toward the fighter.

"Not that soon," Kylo Ren said under his breath. "Force willing."

Rey bit back her grin. "We must go. Poe said we should leave first."

"Right. Well, let's see what this thing can do." Kylo Ren jogged up the gangplank, pausing to press his hand against the logo of a sun half-dimmed by another, darker, orb etched into the ship's hull. "The Eclipse, huh?"

Rey joined him, linking her arm with his. "Dark and light, melded together. I think that's a good sign."

"Probably only a coincidence," Kylo Ren said, but he still gave her a warm smile before they stepped inside the ship.


	26. Chapter 26

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

They made three separate jumps before Kylo Ren relaxed enough to consider leaving the cockpit and allowing BB-8 to monitor the auto-pilot on the Eclipse.

But he only did that after Rey badgered him about getting some rest.

"If you fall over dead from exhaustion, you'll be no use to me," she said, leaning over the back of the pilot's seat to wrap her arms around him.

He twisted his neck to gaze up at her "Oh? And what use would that be?"

"Learning how to balance the light and dark sides of the Force, of course." Rey released him and stepped back, but not before planting a swift kiss on his neck.

He leapt up and took two strides to stand toe-to-toe with her. "Is that all?"

Rey looked up at him with a little smile, her brown eyes sparkling. "Isn't that enough?"

"Not quite," he said. "BB-8, you have the helm. I've set the course and we should be fine for a while, but notify me immediately if anything changes. Anything at all."

The little droid chirped and buzzed an affirmative response.

"Now." Kylo Ren's dark eyes seemed to devour Rey as he gazed down at her. "I promise I will go and grab some sleep. But there's something I want to say before that." He threw up his hands at her expression. "And yes, yes, I know you can't join me."

"Not yet," said Rey, with a little lift of her chin.

"Not yet," Kylo Ren repeated, his lips curving seductively. "But before that, there's still something you should know."

Rey tapped his chest with one finger. "That we are going to have to be hiding for quite some time? Because I've already figured that out."

"Yes, and we'll be hunted. By both sides. But you know that as well."

"I do," she said, draping her arms over his shoulders. "We'll have to fly from planet to planet, I expect. Never staying anywhere long. At least not until this war is over."

"Exactly. So things will be always uncertain. With both the First Order and the Alliance on our tail, we won't be able to lower our guard. Not really. No settling down, not even to continue our studies into the Force. That will have to happen whenever and wherever we can manage it." He shook his head. "Shame we had to leave those Jedi texts behind, but there was no time to go back for them."

"They're still there, in the cave." Rey said, thoughtfully. "And Poe knows where that is. If we send a message to him, somehow…"

"You mean through my mother. Perhaps, one day." Kylo Ren slipped his arms around Rey's waist and pulled her close. "But that isn't really what I wanted to tell you. There's something else. Something you should know, just in case…"

"In case, in the midst of all this running and hiding and being hunted, one of us gets themselves killed?"

"Yes, in case of that." Kylo Ren studied her face for a moment. "You really can read me, can't you?"

"Most of the time," Rey said, her smile broadening. "But I admit I'm drawing a blank over this latest bit of information. I can sense that you want to tell me something important, but not exactly what it is."

"Very well then, here we go." He took a deep breath and slid his hands down, resting them on her hips. "You probably can't discern it because it's a feeling that's so new to me, I can hardly put a name to it. I've never felt it before, you see. Not the way other people do. At least, that's been my understanding." A rueful smile flitted across his face. "I wasn't certain before, I must confess. I just felt something that…confused me. But now I am sure. I know what it is, this very different feeling."

Rey stood perfectly still, hardly daring to breathe, as he leaned in until his lips were a whisper away from hers.

"I love you, Rey."

Rey gave him a smile almost as bright as the force energy they'd unleashed on the beach.

"And I love you, Ben Solo."

"I know," he said, flashing a grin before he kissed her. More gently than in the cave, but infused with, somehow, even more passion.

And Rey, returning his kisses, sent up a silent plea to the Force that their _not yet_ could become _now_ as soon as possible.


	27. Chapter 27

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN (Coda)

Leia gazed out the small window of her quarters, wondering where, amid all that silent space, her son and Rey wandered.

Cast out. Hiding. Hunted.

 _At least they're together,_ she thought. _At least he's no longer alone. Rey as well. She needed him as much as he needed her, I know it._

Leia hadn't dared to send another message via BB-8, although Poe Dameron had told her that the droid traveled with the two refugees.

Two mortals, despite their powers. Fleeing both the Alliance and the First Order.

It was a dangerous game they played, a deadly form of hide-and-seek. Although Leia refused to aid in the search, she knew that other Alliance generals were determined to capture the former Supreme Leader and the girl they now labeled a traitor.

Yet the Alliance was nowhere near as determined as General Hux, the new Supreme Leader, and others in the First Order, who she was sure would slaughter them both on sight.

Although, perhaps not. Leia sighed, knowing there was another danger, based in tales bantered about over drinks in dark rooms. Rumors about the terrible weapon that might be obtained if the two could be forced to combine the power they drew from the dark and light sides of the Force.

Leia knew the truth of this, from Poe, but she had never shared it with anyone else. Trusting that Poe Dameron had not betrayed the secret, she was unsure how others had learned of what had happened on that remote planet. Although she supposed that the evidence was there—in the glassy gash cut across that beach. The First Order, if they had returned for their shuttle, or even the wreckage of their burnt-out ships, would have realized that the weapon was not of their creation. It would also be simple enough for Hux or his minions to deduce that it was not from the Alliance, since if the rebellion controlled such a weapon, they would've used it on the First Order by now.

Leia turned away from the window and crossed to her desk, determined to get some work done. She still had to lead her forces in the ongoing skirmishes against the First Order. While the Alliance was gaining traction in the fight, it was too soon to let down her guard.

She slumped into her chair and flicked her hand to turn on her monitor.

Something crackled into life above her desk—a wavering image.

As the hologram came into focus, Leia leaned forward, gripping the edge of her desk with both hands.

The face of a man stared back at her. Dark hair and eyes, as familiar as her own. Pale skin marred by a jagged scar.

Then she heard a voice. One she hadn't heard in far too long, except in her mind.

A dark, beloved, voice.

"Hello, Mother—

It's Ben."

 **THE END – for this tale**

 **THE NEW BEGINNING – for their story.**


End file.
